Category Archives: Lionfish

Lionfish, Outreach, Research Programs

Lionfish Outreach at Central Eleuthera High School

Fire up the grill! As the 22nd annual Bahamian Young Chef Championship rolls nearer, high school students around the island are fine-tuning their culinary skills and perfecting recipes featuring local ingredients and flavor combinations.

Students learning the location of lionfish’s 18 venomous spines

This week the CEI lionfish team headed to Central Eleuthera High School’s Family and Consumer Science class to speak with Mrs. Williams-Sands’ and Mrs. McKinney’s students about preparation of lionfish.  A student representative from CEHS will be headed to the Young Chef’s district-based competition next week and is considering featuring lionfish as a local ingredient.  This shows marked and exciting progress toward cultivating demand for the invader from the fisheries industry.

Alicia Hendrix, CEI's sustainable fisheries research technition speaking about the introduction of lionfish in the Bahamas
Alicia Hendrix, CEI’s sustainable fisheries research technician, presenting on the impact of lionfish in the Bahamas

CEHS students learned about the invasion of lionfish in the Bahamas and some of the work done at CEI both to manage and to understand its implications for affected ecosystems.  After being shown where lionfish spines were located and having their proper removal demonstrated, students Nigel and Sam faced off to fillet two lionfish, and they and their fellow students worked together to prepare them. Lionfish were fried, baked, and sampled by all students, many of whom had never tried the fish before!

Not only was it exciting to share this delicious white-meat fish with so many new samplers, but being enthusiastically approached by CEHS to introduce this dish was equally thrilling.  With the help of more students, teachers, and community members there may yet be a booming lionfish market.  Stay tuned for updates regarding the lionfish team’s plans for a local fisherman campaign; best of luck to CEHS in their competition next week!

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Lionfish, Outreach, Visiting Scientists

RSMAS help with the lionfish invasion

This week, the RSMAS group had a class on invasive species.  As part of the class, team RSMAS got to go out with the lionfish researchers and help with spearing, dissecting, and filleting of fish.
RSMAS team
Megan Gleason said, “The spears were easy to use, and the lionfish were abundant. We got 14 of them!” Team RSMAS had the opportunity to dive and spear in an uncharted spot which was great.
It was alarming to see the amount of lionfish on a reef that had not been monitored, but it was also a cool experience having so many potential targets to spear!

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They got back to campus and began to dissect the fish in order to see what they had been eating. There were some baby crabs and shrimp in their stomachs; it was incredible that we were able to see them in their whole form. Then it was time to fillet the fish. Afterwards, the group reflected, “We are all looking forward to eating them and experimenting with ways they can be prepared. The cookbook we had the chance to look through gave us some good ideas.”

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Educational Programs, Lionfish, Research Programs, Sharks, Student Research, Sustainable Fisheries

MSSM presents on the effects of longline capture stress

Shark research associate, Owen O'shea, with juvenile tiger shark caught on longline.
Shark research associate, Owen O’shea, with juvenile tiger shark caught on longline.

The Maine School of Science & Mathematics blessed us with their presence for the 4th year in a row here at the Cape Eleuthera Institute! Dr. Debbie Eustis-Grandy and Dr. Gregory Hamlin, both teachers from MSSM in Limestone, Maine, lead five brilliant boarding students through a two week research program with Cape Eleuthera Institute’s shark researchers- Edd Brooks, Owen O’shea, Ian Bouyoucos, Ollie Shipley, and Mackey Violich.

Students learning about the anatomy of the invasive lionfish with Alicia Hendrix, CEI's research technician for the sustainable fisheries program.
Students learning about the anatomy of the invasive lionfish with Alicia Hendrix, CEI’s research technician for the sustainable fisheries program.

Students were specifically looking at the effects of longline capture stress on the blood chemistry of Caribbean reef sharks & nurse sharks, focusing on glucose and lactate levels within the first 30 minutes of capture. Students worked alongside the shark crew in the field longlining for shark. Their first day in the field they caught a juvenile tiger shark with a total length of just 134 cms! This data will contribute to CEI’s shark longlining database and be used to research the potential effects commercial longline on shark species. Students analyzed blood chemistry data on Caribbean reef sharks and nurse sharks provided by the CEI’s long term database. This data was used to draw conclusions on the different stress response of species with various life history characteristics. Continue reading →

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Lionfish, Research Programs, SCUBA, Visiting Scientists

Lionfish study focused on South Eleuthera’s patch reefs is accepted for publication!

A photo of catching lionfish by REEF's Lad Akins
A photo of catching lionfish by REEF’s Lad Akins

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
Lionfish on the patch reefs
Lionfish on the patch reefs
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Educational Programs, Flats, Lionfish, Outreach, Plastics, Research Programs, Sea turtles, Sharks

CEI attends Abaco Science Alliance Conference 2014

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Stephen, Owen, Tiff, Meaghan, and Joce at the conference.

FRIENDS of the Environment hosted the 6th Biennial Abaco Science Alliance Conference (ASAC). The conference goals were to provide a forum for networking and information sharing for Abaco and Bahamas-based research projects, to encourage the use of research for local education and environmental management purposes and to stimulate further research in The Bahamas.

The research and educational programs team traveled from South Eleuthera to Marsh Harbour, Abaco to represent the Cape Eleuthera Institute. The team presented on various research topics currently conducted at the Institute. From mangrove restoration to deep water sharks, here is list of ASAC attendees representing CEI:

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Owen’s presentation

Stephen B Cone Jr, an outstanding 2013 summer flats intern, gave a talk titled “The mangrove action plan: an adaptive outreach and ecosystem rehabilitation initiative.”

Dr Owen OʼShea, research associate for CEI’s shark research and conservation program, gave a fantastic talk on deep water elasmobranch surveys. His deep sea videos caused much excitement!

Dr Jocelyn Curtis-Quick encouraged all to eat lionfish and talked about her study on the interactions between the Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Panulirus argus, and Invasive Lionfish, Pterois volitans.

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The whole CEI group!

Kristal Ambrose gave a passionate talk on the spatial and temporal patterns in the abundance and diversity of plastic marine debris on beaches in South Eleuthera.

Megean Gary presented on her turtle research examining the spatial dynamics of immature Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) within a foraging ground on the Atlantic coast of Eleuthera.

Continue reading →

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Lionfish, Research Programs, SCUBA

Lionfish team completes December surveys

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GOPR7323Wetsuits were in order as the lionfish team took to the seas for their December surveys of the patch reefs.  A three-day blitz with eighteen dives brought us to sixteen sites and ninety-one transects in 73°F water.  Neither impending exhaustion nor chattering teeth could dampen our spirits as we conducted REEF surveys of fish abundances, counted and sized lionfish and their competitors, and photographed the benthic environment for habitat assessment at each of the sites.  We saw napping nurse sharks, spotted morays, a tiny bandtail puffer, and a rarely sighted cherub fish.GOPR7301 (1)

Continue reading →

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Lionfish

CEI Researchers attend the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute Conference

CEI’s Dr Jocelyn Curtis-Quick and Skylar Millar attended the 66th Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute conference in Corpus Christi Texas last week.

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Jocelyn presenting her research.
Jocelyn presenting her research.

Jocelyn presented the research that her team and Island School class have been working on over the last two semesters – investigating the interactions between the Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Panulirus argus, and the invasive lionfish, Pterois volitans.  This work is of great importance as the potential displacement of lobster in condos could have large negative socioeconomic and ecological consequences for The Bahamas, and the greater Caribbean.  Jocelyn also attended a special workshop that brought together scientists, restaurant affiliates and members from various commercial sectors to talk about getting lionfish in the market place.  Lots of great ideas and discussion took place! Continue reading →

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Educational Programs, Lionfish, Outreach

Outreach at local Wemyss Bight Primary School

Sixth grade students listen to a presentation on lionfish.
Sixth grade students listen to a presentation on lionfish.

Tiffany Gray, the Lead Outdoor Educator at CEI and Franchesca Bethell, a lionfish intern at CEI and a former BESS Island School alumni, recently had the opportunity to teach the awesome sixth grade class at Wemyss Bight Primary School about lionfish awareness. The students first followed along with the lionfish presentation which gave them insight into the invasive species in the western region of the world. They listened attentively and weren’t afraid to ask LOTS of questions during the presentation! Continue reading →

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Conch, Educational Programs, Lionfish, Outreach, Plastics, Sharks, Student Research

Update on recent visiting programs!

Fall is off to a fantastic start in Educational Programs!  CEI jumped back into the academic year with two amazing weeks of programming. Along for the ride were our students from Round Square, a collaborative group of 17 young adults from Canada and Massachusetts, followed by Palm Beach Day Academy of Florida.

The Round Square group dropping the Medusa
The Round Square group dropping the Medusa

Round Square ambassadors spent time on Eleuthera before heading to the annual Round Square conference.  Students focused on their “IDEALS of learning: Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service” while at CEI, and investigated the concept of what it means to live and travel well.  Round Square students had the once in a lifetime opportunity of launching the Medusa with the Shark Research team, along with dissecting a lionfish, conducting shuttle box experiments, and surveying the local beaches for marine debris.

Round Square group playing with kids at the resource center.
Round Square group playing with kids at the resource center.

To emphasize the international element of the program, CEI organized and launched a Round Square-DCMS Plastics Seminar! The day began by pairing each Round Square student with a DCMS student, and quickly launched into round table discussions on plastics pollution and its impact on environment and our bodies.  All DCMS and the Round Square students were insightful and reflective on plastics in daily life, and each left with recycled plastic jewelry to remind them to keep continue thinking about plastic’s role in our world. Continue reading →

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Lionfish, Research Programs, SCUBA

Lionfish Team Fall Update

Check out this video to see what the lionfish team has been up to this fall!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EbQE-qp33JM

The start of the semester has been an extremely busy and exciting time for the lionfish program. In November, Dr. Jocelyn Curtis-Quick, head of the team, will be heading to Texas to present her work on lobster-lionfish displacement at the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute conference. The purpose of this study is to determine whether lionfish are displacing spiny lobsters in critical habitats and what this means for the economically important lobster fishery. We were also pleased to welcome gap year student Ryan Hodges to our crew, who will be working with us for the next four weeks.  His extra set of hands is needed considering we have over 150 hours of video to analyze before the GCFI conference! Continue reading →

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