Lionfish, beautiful and dangerous.
The venomous lionfish has invaded the oceans of the world, and it has little to fear. In the Caribbean, it has no natural enemies. In fact, it is causing great distruction to Caribbean reefs because of this and because of it's voracious appetite.
The venom of the lionfish, delivered via an array of up to 18 needle-like dorsal fins, is purely defensive.The Lionfish relies on camouflage and lightning-fast reflexes to capture prey, mainly fish and shrimp. A sting from a lionfish is extremely painful to humans and can cause nausea and breathing difficulties, but is rarely fatal.
But here's the thing, the lionfish is delicious to eat and that might be it's undoing, hopefully. At the very least the invasion will slow as lionfish finds it's way into ceviche and it's fabulous.
This is off Banco Chinchorro. The clarity of the water here in Costa Maya is amazing and seeing our guides free-dive down to the bottom so effortlessly and then swim around down there is something to behold.
music by Alexander Blu 13 - Independent, 07 - Teacher and 10 - Spider
