In the waters of the western Atlantic
and Caribbean a voracious alien predator

has taken hold. We have never before seen
a marine invasion of this magnitude or scale.

Lionfish are indigenous to the
Indo-Pacific. They've evolved over many

thousands of years in a complicated
system where everything had had time to work

out its place and its controlling
mechanisms. Not so in the Atlantic where

this invasive species is a major threat
to biodiversity and the health of

already stressed coral reef ecosystems.
The biggest concern we have is lion fish

predation on other marine life. They are
a voracious gluttonous feeder they're an

ambush predator and they're very
uniquely camouflaged so they can sneak

up very close to their prey and our prey
here in this range have not evolved with

lionfish and don't see them as a
predator. One of the key findings of the

research that we've been doing here in
the Bahamas is that lionfish have likely

reduced fish populations on many of
these reefs by up to ninety percent in

the last four years. It's a free-for-all
for lionfish right now no predators, lots

of food - it's a kid in a candy store.

The million-dollar question is what are we going to do about this?