An invasive and carnivorous species is already found in eight Brazilian states, there are no predators in the region and endangers native fish. Venomous, lionfish has already caused at least seven accidents with humans in the country. Owner of a peculiar beauty, which makes it an animal coveted by aquarists all over the world, the lionfish has been an environmental problem in ecosystems where it spreads , as an invasive species. Originating from coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region, it has become a pest in the Caribbean and, in recent years, has been advancing along the Brazilian coast.
A researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences (Labomar) at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), biologist and geoscientist Marcelo Soares says that, between 2020 and March 2023, “more than 300 specimens” of the animal were captured and registered on the coast of eight different states in the Northeast.
“What has astonished us is that until March 2022 we found small animals, measuring 14 or 15 centimeters. Now they are already specimens in the range of 28 centimeters. And further north, in Amapá, Pará and Fernando de Noronha, we already found 32 centimeters ”, he comments. “And they have been reproducing, we found several ovated females.”
“Without a doubt, our data show exponential growth in these animals, with no flattening of the curve. It is a very fast population growth”, adds Soares. “Every day I get some video.”
According to the researcher, the presence is already large in a strip of 2,780 kilometers, between the coast of Amapá and Pernambuco, encompassing Pará, Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, and passing through 12 units of environmental conservation.
And the records demonstrate a great capacity for adaptation. Lionfish have been found at extremely shallow depths, such as 1 meter, to spots over 100 meters. Their presence has not been limited to coral reefs either — they have been spotted in estuaries and mangroves.
“Now that they have arrived in Pernambuco, they have a favorable current that leads to the south. Data we have today indicate that the animal should reach the coast of Uruguay”, predicts Soares, noting that there is great concern if the lionfish spreads through the region of Abrolhos, in Bahia, due to the potential environmental imbalance in the ecological sanctuary. .
lack of predators
The biggest problem for lionfish in the South Atlantic is the lack of natural predators. “They have already been described as one of nature’s most aggressively invasive species”, points out biologist and scientific popularizer Guilherme Domenichelli, creator of the Animal TV channel on Youtube.
The female lays thousands of eggs at a time, releasing them every four days. “It is estimated that a female can produce 2 million eggs a year”, comments Soares.
Carnivore, the animal finds a true feast in the species of the Brazilian coastal fauna. “We believe that it puts 29 species of native Brazilian fish at risk. It feeds very quickly on a large number of animals”, says the Labomar researcher. It is a glutton capable of devouring 20 fish in half an hour, managing to ingest animals practically its size.
Biologist Domenichelli points out that the lionfish has a great ability to adapt to different environments, even tolerating different types of salinity, and this favors its dissemination.
Besides, venomous
He is a venomous animal, but he does not attack – the resource is only for defense. “It uses its rays and fins, which are furrowed and filled with venomous glands”, explains doctor Vidal Haddad Junior, professor at the São Paulo State University (Unesp).
Haddad studied the effects of lionfish venom on humans, following 15 cases of accidents involving aquarists. “Lionfish venom enters the body when the person impinges on the rays of the fins, which are long and thin”, she details. “The main consequences are immediate excruciating pain and necrosis and secondary bacterial infection can occur.”
According to the doctor, “although it does not cause death”, such an incident “can incapacitate the victim for up to a week”.
In May of last year, he was one of the authors of a scientific article recording the first occurrence of an accident with lionfish in a natural environment in Brazil. A 24-year-old fisherman had seven perforations when he stepped on a specimen on Bitupitá beach, in Barroquinha, Ceará. He had local edema and erythema, in addition to feeling pain and fever.
Soares says that, since then, there have been reports of at least six other accidents involving fishermen.
How did it spread?
It is not known exactly how the lionfish arrived in the Atlantic. The most accepted theories are that they were introduced to the environment from aquariums. “Probably in the early 1990s,” says Domenichelli. “Perhaps this occurred in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew destroyed an aquarium in South Florida, releasing six specimens into Biscayne Bay.”
But he also believes in the possibility that amateur aquarists have released the animals into the ocean, either “to get rid of the animal”, or because “they got bored of the hobby”, or because “they thought they would give the fish freedom”. From Florida, it soon spread across the Caribbean seas.
In Brazil, the first appearance was recorded in Rio de Janeiro. There are two records, in 2014 and 2015, in Arraial do Cabo. “But after that, nothing was ever heard of in that region, so we believe that it was an isolated introduction that occurred from an aquarium and that, at the time, it did not proliferate”, says Soares.
The situation was different from 2020 onwards, when lionfish began to be found frequently on the Northeast coast and around Fernando de Noronha. “We now have evidence of introduction in a natural way. They were already in Venezuela and French Guiana, possibly swimming across a system of deep reefs where the Amazon River flows into the sea”, explains the geoscientist.
It is not easy to contain the advance of the animal. According to the researchers, the only solution is to encourage hunting, as is already happening in the Caribbean. “Eradicating it is practically impossible, so it is necessary to control its population”, says Soares. “The term we use is ‘functional eradication.’ The idea is to keep its population low so it doesn’t have too much of an impact.”
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