MEXICO: A Nassau Grouper has been caught on film hunting, killing and eating a lionfish off the coast of Little Cayman in what is believed to be the first video footage of the predator helping itself to the invasive species. The video was recorded by Jim Hart, co-founder and executive director of Lionfish University, an NGO created to raise money to help tackle the invasive species threatening Caribbean reefs.
While groupers have eaten the fish in the past when fed by divers, marine experts were not convinced that the local predator was likely to snack on the lionfish on their own. As a result, the footage showing the grouper stalking and eventually striking and scoffing the lionfish without any interference from divers is a significant step in the fight to reduce their numbers.
Although this may be learned behaviour as a result of those earlier efforts to feed the grouper, it appears that the larger fish are finally working out how to snag the tasty fish without falling foul of the dangerous spines.
With no natural predators in the Atlantic, the Pacific species has been reproducing at an alarming rate and competing with native fish species for food. Despite a massive effort by divers living in and visiting the Cayman Islands to catch as many as possible, the battle to at least control lionfish numbers, as most marine experts agreed eradication is now impossible, has not been easy.
However, if the Nassau grouper develops a taste for the fish, along with continued and coordinated culling efforts and fishing, the lionfish numbers could be at least controlled.
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