Assess management options to mitigate lionfish impacts to reef ecosystems
University of Florida
DWH Project Funding
Known Leveraged Funding
The U.S. Department of Treasury
The RESTORE Act Funds Bucket 5: Centers of Excellence Research Grant Program
In the past decade, invasive lionfish originally from the Indo-Pacific, have rapidly colonized the northern Gulf of Mexico, and their numbers are increasing exponentially. Recent studies in other Atlantic regions indicate that the invasion has potentially devastating impacts on native reef fish populations and ecology, and threatens valued reef fisheries such as snappers and groupers. This project will develop new observations and ecological models to evaluate lionfish impacts on native reef fish, and develop models to predict how stronger management actions and varying levels of lionfish removals may mitigate their impacts.
Location is center of study area