Moving home: an Indo-Pacific lionfish cruises on a reef off the North Carolina coast
Image: NOAA

he exotic lionfish, already a long way from the reefs of its Indo-Pacific home, is heading further north up the US coast as global warming causes big changes to ocean habitats.

The venomous lionfish is on the move. This invasive species has been observed in deeper waters off the North Carolina coast since the turn of the century, but new research suggests it may now be expanding its range into the shallower levels.

Since the lionfish (Pterois volitans) is actually native to the Indo-Pacific region, it is already a long way from home. But what now gives it licence to hunt further north is warmer sea temperature.

Global warming has already begun to make huge differences to ocean habitat. The bluefin tuna is a temperate zone fish that has already been observed in Arctic waters off the coast of Greenland, and commercial species such as red mullet, a creature of the Mediterranean, has been seen in the North Sea and even in Norwegian waters.

Now researchers in the US have reported that the lionfish – an invader first observed off the Florida coast in the 1980s ? is spreading through the north-west Atlantic.

Temperature is the key determinant for a fish on the move. Fisheries biologist Paula Whitfield, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centres for Coastal Ocean Science, and colleagues report in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series that they surveyed 40 species of fish off the reefs of North Carolina.

Tropical Species Headed North

These reefs have always been home both to temperate and tropical species, at the limits of their ranges. But now the reefs are becoming more tropical ? and so is the local population.

“Along the North Carolina coast, warming water temperatures may allow the expansion of tropical fish species, such as lionfish, into areas that were previously uninhabitable due to cold winter temperatures,” Whitfield says.

“The temperature thresholds collected in this study will allow us to detect and estimate fish community changes related to water temperature.”

The lionfish tends to prefer water warmer than 15.2°C, and so normally inhabits the warm currents of the deeper waters in the temperate Atlantic. It is a carnivore that seems to enjoy a wide range of prey. It makes itself at home in a wide variety of habitat, and is considered a serious threat to other species of reef fish.

– Climate News Network

About the Author

Tim Radford is a freelance journalist. He worked for The Guardian for 32 years, becoming (among other things) letters editor, arts editor, literary editor and science editor. He won the Association of British Science Writers award for science writer of the year four times. He served on the UK committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. He has lectured about science and the media in dozens of British and foreign cities. 

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Science that Changed the World: The untold story of the other 1960s revolution
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