The 1st reports of 'lionfish' on NC wrecks date back
to summer of 2000 - mind U this is reported date, not
necessarily 'arrival' date.

I have pix of a specimen from the Naeco 'bow'.  Others
have reported sightings on other wrecks & NOAA has
collected a specimen & ID'ed.

The issue remains as to
1.  Are all specimens the same species?
2.  Though they appear to have weathered the winter, &
it can B construed that if a # of the same species
have been introduced, they will reproduce, no evidence
to the latter yet exists.
3.  The issue of gene pool still remains - that is if
they have indeed bred, put the progenitors were a
small #, the gene pool will B, putatively, limited (in
breeding), thus impacting survival probability.

This is indeed an interesting phenomenon.  How they
arrived &, more importantly, how a population, if
established, became established is currently no more
than conjecture.

Lets C how many there are this summer!

Safe bubbles
Esat Atikkan
>
> In response to Esat's questions:
> >How many are there & do they constitute a
> 'breeding' population (gene pool)?
> It's my experience that once an exotic is abundant
> enough to be found by
> more than a couple folks, it's already a breeding
> population.
>
> >What will their impact B on local ecology.
> That's the $64,000 question.  And as we ecologists
> like to say: This ain't
> rocket science -- it's a heck of a lot harder!  One
> thing you can be nearly
> certain of -- once an exotic species gets a foothold
> it's not likely to
> give it up.  Don't you Ozzies have a few rabbits
> runnin' around the
> continent?  At least lionfish are interesting to
> watch.
> -Mark B.


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