ethanriley said:
He says "the experts" forecast that because of the fact that the lion has no predators in the Atlantic and with the abundance of food available to them that they expect them to spread throughout the Caribbean before the end of the year. Interestingly enough he is of the opinion that irresponsible hobbyists is the least likely cause of the proliferation, but rather is caused more prominnently by boats expelling theire bilge water coming from one body of water to another.
Yeah, I have seen that same thing in my state, non-native species spreading like wildfire....:doubt: I don't buy the bilge theory at all for several reasons...there is such a very vast number of worldly traveled ships pass through that sea lane every day, freighters, crusie ships, military ships, ect... and have been doing so for several decades...if this was the cause, I think we would have seen them many years ago, not just in the last few years (when coincidentally the marine tank hobby has exploded in popultaion). Also, having served in the Navy, and lived on ships, I can attest to two facts...one, the bilge is not a place where larval organisims will thrive. It's full of every nasty thing you can think of...fuel, oil, sewage, paint, you name it... ect....and very little light as well...no way a bilge supports a food chain that would allow larval fish to survive the length of time necessary to make a trans-oceanic journey. And that brings me to my second point...time involved...A ship at sea will pump its bilge dry almost daily...the length of time it takes a ship to get from the indo-pacific (averave pacific crossing from the Phillipines to the Panama Canal is about 20 days, give or take...)...that's a lot of bilge pumpings...I think that the odds of any larval fish surviving the bilge environment, the constant pumping, ect and making all the way to the Carribean are extremely low...I'd have to blame the hobbyist in this case...
ethanriley said:
He requested me to turn over the fish so that they can send tissue samples to Carolina to determine if in fact the strain of lion off the Atlantic Coast is directly related to those here in our region. Anyhow what do you guys think should I give it to them for tissue samples or let it be happy in my tank?:badgrin: Also since it isn't an indigenous species he indicated that I/we could begin harvesting them for potential retail trade:shock:
Definately turn it over to them, it will help them figure out what is going on, where it came from, ect, and maybe help them find a plan to combat the problem...
MikeS
