Lounging on the deck after breakfast, waiting for the first dive briefing of the day . . .
Ken J, Capt. Bob, Sean B & Mike B.
The Coast Guard Cutter made a pass by us . . .
There were too many of these on our dives . . .
Two of the nine species of Pterois, the red lionfish (P. volitans)
and the common lionfish (P. miles), have established themselves
as significant invasive species off the East Coast
of the United States and in the Caribbean.
About 93% of the invasive population in the Western Atlantic is P. volitans.
They have been described as "one of the most aggressively invasive species on the planet".
The red lionfish is found off the East Coast of the United States
and the Caribbean Sea, and was likely first introduced off the Florida coast
by the early to mid-1990s. This introduction may have occurred in 1992
when Hurricane Andrew destroyed an aquarium in southern Florida,
releasing six lionfish into Biscayne Bay.
However, a lionfish was discovered off the coast of Dania Beach,
south Florida, as early as 1985, prior to Hurricane Andrew.
The lionfish resembles those of the Philippines, implicating the aquarium trade.
The lionfish may have been purposefully discarded by unsatisfied
aquarium enthusiasts. In 2001, NOAA documented several sightings
of lionfish off the coast of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,
Bermuda, and as far north now as Delaware. In August 2014,
when the Gulf Stream was discharging into the mouth of the Delaware Bay,
two lionfish were caught by a surf fisherman off the ocean side shore
of Cape Henlopen State Park: one red one that weighed 1 pound 4.5 ounces
and one common one that weighed 1 pound 2 ounces.
Three days later, a 1 pound 3 ounce red lionfish was caught
off the shore of Broadkill Beach which is in the Delaware Bay,
approximately 15 miles north of Cape Henlopen State Park.
Lionfish were first detected in the Bahamas in 2004.
Recently (June 2013) they have been discovered as far east as Barbados,
and as far south as the Los Roques Archipelago and many Venezuelan continental beaches.
Juvenile Spotted Drum (Equetus punctatus);
also known as Croakers, Hardheads, Highhats, Jackknifes,
Spotted Equetus, Spotted Drumfish, High Hat Drum, Spotted Ribbonfish
Drums are named for the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds
they make by beating their abdominal muscles against the swim bladder.
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