Good news for the continuing battle against invasive lionfish – a study conducted at CEI in collaboration with Simon Fraser University and Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), and headed by marine ecologist, Stephanie Green (now a postdoc at Oregon State University) was recently accepted by the Ecological Society of America. This 18 month study shows that by reducing lionfish populations below threshold levels, we can help protect native fish communities from predator-induced population declines at a local scale. Even though complete eradication of lionfish is virtually impossible, this finding gives researchers hope that removal efforts are making a difference. So, get out there…save the reef, eat a lionfish!
Check out the recent press about this study, http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-01/osu-wol012214.php
and read the full manuscript here, http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/45163
