11 fish found in stomach of a single invasive lionfish caught off Texas, NOAA says

Invasive lionfish are gobbling up so much of the native sea life in the Gulf of Mexico that they’re getting fat, NOAA reports.

That discovery was made when researchers probed a lionfish caught off Texas and discovered it was crammed with fish, according to the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

“This Lionfish was removed from the sanctuary during the Lionfish Invitational in 2022, and dissected last week,” the sanctuary reported in a June 12 Facebook post.

“Eleven fish were found in its stomach, and that just represents its last meal before capture.”

Even more startling is a discovery that lionfish are getting heavier from the endless buffet. They’re eating so much “they have layers of fat coating their internal organs!” NOAA found.

Investigators did not report the long-term impact the excess fat would have on the species.

However, the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission reports a single lionfish “can reduce recruitment of native reef fish by 79 percent” in a coral reef.

“Lionfish feed on prey normally consumed by snappers, groupers, and other commercially important native species,” the commission wrote in a June 13 Facebook post. “They also feed on native fish species. This means their presence could negatively affect the well-being of valuable commercial and recreational fisheries.”

More than 3,000 lionfish have been caught off Texas since 2010 during NOAA’s annual Lionfish Invitational.

The species is native to the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea but began appearing off Florida’s Atlantic Coast in 1985. NOAA suspects they were freed into coastal waters via “the home aquarium trade.”

“At first, the spread of the lionfish population was rather gradual, but in 2000 the number of sightings began to increase exponentially. By 2009, lionfish were pretty well established along the Atlantic coast and throughout the Caribbean,” NOAA reports.

“In 2010, sightings were also recorded in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, along the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. In July 2011, the first lionfish was observed in the sanctuary, at Stetson Bank.”

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