Newly discovered fish are being eaten by voracious invasive predator
Scientists looking for new species on deep water reefs in the Caribbean were surprised to find hungry, invasive lionfish eating some of the recent discoveries.
Will an invasive predator drive undiscovered species to extinction?
Marine biologists studying previously unexplored deepwater reef systems in the Caribbean were delighted to discover a new species of reef fish — and then shocked to see invasive Lionfish vacuuming their new discovery up off the reef.
Lionfish are native to Indo-Pacific waters, and are beautiful, but voracious predators with poison spikes.
They've been devastating shallow water ecosytems in the Atlantic, from Florida to Brazil, but scientists including Dr. Carole Baldwin, the Curator of Fishes at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, are now afraid they may be entering new deepwater territories we haven't yet explored.
They're driving species to extinction before we can even discover them.