Ocean Predators

Training Wild Predators to Eat Lionfish

Lionfish are invading the Caribbean and coast of Florida, but a recent discovery found that lionfish can tolerate fresh water too, meaning they may also pose a risk to freshwater ecosystems over time.

So far the species who have been found to tolerate eating lionfish include:

• Barracuda

• Eels

• Grand Cayman Snapper

• Grouper

• Humpback Scorpionfish 

• Sharks

"A divemaster off the coast of St. Kitts spears lionfish (an invasive species in the Caribbean) and feeds them to sharks to teach them to seek out the fish as prey. The lionfish invasion is considered to be one of the most serious recent threats to Caribbean and Florida coral reef ecosystems. Culling by marine protection agencies and volunteer divers is an important element of control efforts. Adult lionfish have few identified natural predators, likely from the effectiveness of their venomous spines. Moray eels, bluespotted cornetfish, and large groupers have been observed preying on lionfish. During our diving at St. Kitts, we witnessed that sharks are also capable of preying on lionfish with no ill effects from their spines"

Lionfish Capture Options for Feeding Wildlife

If you want to teach a wild predator to eat something, first you need to capture their prey, this can be done with harpoons or traps, then the fish can be wiggled in front of the predator to catch their interest. Helping predators consume these fish helps them learn to associate their bizarre (almost coral-like shape) with food, and this can encourage them to actively seek out these invaders as prey in the future.

Shellfish

Pacific Oysters 

According to this paper, "at present other natural regulatory mechanisms controlling the population development of M. gigas are absent or low due to lack of natural predators. The most common invertebrate shellfish predators in the Wadden Sea and Dutch estuaries are the brown shrimp Crangon crangon, the shore crab Carcinus maenas and the common starfish Asterias rubens (Troost, 2010). No doubt these invertebrates predate on spat and juvenile Pacific oyster specimens, but not so much in lower saline habitats where the Pacific oyster still thrives, but the predators face osmotic challenges. To our knowledge, thorough documentation on the significance of predation is still lacking. In the Wadden Sea herring gulls, Larus argentatus, and oyster catchers, Haematopus ostralegus, are the only reported bird species predating on M. gigas (Cadee, 2008a, Cadee, 2008b). Moreover, the colonization by Pacific oysters certainly does not improve bird biodiversity but shows negative impacts mostly for three species: Oystercatcher, Common Gull, and Knot (Waser et al., 2016). In the Wadden Sea ecosystem, the Pacific oyster is associated with five invasive and native macro parasite species thoroughly discussed by Goedknegt (2017). However, a more serious situation emerges concerning disease outbreaks among Pacific oysters. Recently an ostreid herpesvirus microvariant (OsHV-1 μ var. disease) was detected in culture installations as well as in wild populations in France, Sweden, Norway, USA, and Australia causing mass mortality among the oysters (e.g., Mortensen et al., 2016; King et al., 2019). - Too Late for Regulatory Management on Pacific Oysters in European Coastal Waters? 

Organizations

Europe

• Alien CSI Bioblitz "a citizen science project to engage society in invasive species monitoring. Welcome to the second edition of the Alien CSI Bioblitz, a 3-days event across Europe! Join and help us to detect as many invasive alien species as possible!"

North America

USA

• The Midwest Invasive Species Information Network (MISIN) "is a regional effort to develop and provide early detection and response resources for invasive species." "Our goal is to assist both experts and citizen scientists in the detection and identification of invasive species in support of successful management."

• NEMESIS "Welcome to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's National Estuarine and Marine Exotic Species Information System (NEMESIS). Here you will find information on marine and estuarine invertebrates and algae introduced to the United States."

Europe

• Alien CSI Bioblitz "a citizen science project to engage society in invasive species monitoring. Welcome to the second edition of the Alien CSI Bioblitz, a 3-days event across Europe! Join and help us to detect as many invasive alien species as possible!"

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