The small fish lurking by a rock off Frederiksted’s Dorsch Beach on Thursday afternoon caught 16-year-old Alejandro Perez’s eye.
To the Educational Complex sophomore, the fish by the rock looked just like a picture he’d seen on a poster at a restaurant in Cane Bay in December — a poster warning about the Pacific lionfish, a non-native predatory fish that is invading local waters. The poster urged anyone who saw one to report it.
Biologists fear that the Pacific lionfish — which has a voracious appetite for other fish and no known predators in the Caribbean — will wreak havoc on the marine ecosystem by consuming the fish population, affecting both local fisheries and coral reefs, and ultimately, the local economy.
Perez had gone with his family for an afternoon snorkel at Dorsch Beach on Thursday when he spotted a lobster and started heading back for shore to tell the others, he said.
As he made his way to shore, a large sea urchin caught his eye. And then, underneath the edge of a rock near the sea urchin, he saw a small fish that looked like the fish in the poster, he said.
“The picture just stuck in my mind and when I saw it, I knew it was a lionfish,” Alejandro said. “It was under this rock with a lot of little fishes. I thought: I guess I better get it out before it eats everything.”
He knew not to touch it, he said. The Pacific lionfish — striped, with fan-like fins — also has venomous dorsal spines that can cause painful stings.
Alejandro looked up to gauge where he was in the water in relation to the family car, then got out and Googled lionfish on his cell phone to find out how to report the sighting.
William Coles, chief of environmental education with the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Division, took the call and came down to meet Alejandro and his family on the beach.
Alejandro took him to the spot in the water where the lionfish had been, and although they found the rock and the sea urchin, they initially had difficulty locating the fish, which was about five inches long, Coles said.
“It was right there, but it was hiding in a way that if you didn’t know where to look and how to look, you wouldn’t find it,” Coles said. “It’s easy to overlook things like that.”
Coles removed the fish and took the opportunity before night fell to show other beachgoers what it looks like and to ask them to keep an eye out for lionfish, he said.
Coles noted that the fish was found in about 4Â feet of water at the popular beach — at a depth where many beachgoers may find themselves relaxing in the water.
“It doesn’t matter where you are right now, you should be looking for lionfish and be aware of them,” Coles said. “If people see one, they should mark the spot or stay there until someone shows up to remove it. That’s the safest thing right now.”
The fish does not move rapidly, but people should avoid the dorsal fins, he said.
“One of the things we were concerned about is it’s getting really hot and a lot of people are going to be on the beach, and if there’s one, there could be more,” Coles said. “We don’t want people getting hurt.”
A local effort — spearheaded by a group of divers, assisted by dive shop operators and fishermen — is under way in an attempt to keep the lionfish invasion in check.
So far, 36 of the fish have been found off St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John. “We are working to try and create a means for everyone to be involved so we can win this,” Coles said. “It’s neat that we got a local high school student who found one.”
Alejandro said he was glad he spotted the fish.
“I feel good,” he said. “I guess I made a difference.”
To report a lionfish sighting, call Coles at 773-1082 or 643-0800.
— Contact reporter Joy Blackburn at 774-8772 ext. 455 or e-mail E-Mail.
