Slide #2 * Lionfish in the early 1980’s were a very popular aquarium fish and pets because of their unique look. However, aquariums and homeowners no longer wanted their Lionfish and they dumped them Atlantic Ocean.

Slide #3 * Females can release 30,000 eggs at one time and they are dispersed by ocean currents. * One female lionfish can lay over 2 million eggs a year. * Also, lionfish reproduction occurs throughout the year and as frequently as 4 days (whereas Native Indo-Pacific lionfish breed once a year)

Slide #4 * With no known predators -- except human beings -- they can wipe out 90% of a reef. The venomous, fast reproducing fish are aggressive eaters and will consume anything and everything, gorging so much they are actually getting liver disease. * This lack of instinct by native fish allows lionfish to reduce juvenile fish populations by 80% and sometimes even more. * Ecologist James Morris with the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science said that, “the lionfish has brought a big change in biodiversity, and it is what he called the most abundant top-level predator on some coral reefs (in the Atlantic).”

Slide #5 * However, the lionfish are destroying the reefs and killing the biodiversity, which is reducing Bermuda income on the reefs each year.

Slide #7 * The zookeeper was invented by a guy down in Curacao. The zookeeper is a plastic tube that allows divers to store lionfish in while they are hunting. —And the Magnus scooters allow divers to cover larger areas of water quicker to capture more lionfish. * Now a days it is so easy to get a spear fishing license for lionfish that many people go and get it so they can go spearfishing in their free time. * Across Bermuda, residents are also doing their part to try to take control of the lionfish population. There are lionfish tournaments and fish fries, and you can see "Eat 'em to Beat 'em" T-shirts throughout the island. These movements have helped kill many lionfish and are the step in the right direction.