Beschreibung

Become an Invasive Species Management Instructor Today!

SSI recognizes the urgent need to address the threats posed by invasive species to aquatic biodiversity. The Invasive Species Management specialty is designed to train divers through SSI’s recognized instructors in identifying, safely removing, and managing invasive species, particularly in sensitive aquatic environments. Divers will play a crucial role in preserving native species and restoring ecological balance.

Native to the Pacific Ocean, Lionfish are progressively invading the north-western Atlantic and the Caribbean, where they have no natural predators. Learn what action is needed to control the Lionfish population and, during two Open Water dives, learn practical ways to safely and humanely capture and euthanize these fish.

Are Lionfish as Harmful to the Marine Environment as We’ve Been Told?

Lionfish are voracious predators, both outcompeting native coral reef fishes for prey and also directly eating juvenile native reef fishes. They’re actually eating so many native fish that scientists studying invasive lionfish found an unusual tissue in them—it turns out that many Caribbean lionfish are obese.

Studies show lionfish can eat more than 70 species of native fish and invertebrates, including individuals up to half the size of the lionfish, and can eat 460,000 fish per acre per year—which has reduced native fish populations on some reefs by up to 90 percent.

Because they have no predators in their native range (yes, some groupers and sharks sometimes eat them, but not nearly enough to control their populations), they are found in super high abundance in the Caribbean—sometimes up to 200 fish per acre! In some ecosystems, about half of the total predator biomass is now lionfish, remarkable for a species that just wasn’t there 30 years ago. Oh, and they reach reproductive maturity in under a year, and one female can spawn over 2 million eggs in a single year.

So, Lionfish Are Indeed an Ecological Problem

What can we do about them? One of the most popular strategies is hunting lionfish. The goal of hunting Lionfish is clear– successfully remove a significant number of adult lionfish off the reefs during any given dive.

Candidate Prerequisites

• Minimum age | 18 years old.
• Have one (1) of the following active status SSI certification (no equivalency permitted):
  
  • Divemaster
  • Snorkel Instructor