Energy and Environment

Jamaica reports big drop in lionfish sightings

By David McFadden
Published April 14, 2014 12:02am ET
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Jamaica reports big drop in lionfish sightings
FILE - In this July, 2007 file photo released by Oregon State University, a lionfish swims off Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas. Jamaica's government announced on Saturday, April 12, 2014 a big decline in sightings of lionfish, the voracious invasive species that has been wreaking havoc on regional reefs for years and wolfing down native juvenile fish and crustaceans. They have been such a worrying problem that divers in the Caribbean and Florida are encouraged to capture them whenever they can to protect reefs and native marine life already burdened by pollution, over fishing and the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Mark Albins/Oregon State University, File) | Mark Albins

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaica is reporting a big decline in sightings of lionfish, the voracious invasive species that has been wreaking havoc on regional reefs for years and wolfing down native juvenile fish and crustaceans.

Some four years after a national campaign got started to slash numbers of the candy-striped predator with a mane of venomous spines, Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency is reporting a 66 percent drop in sightings of lionfish in coastal waters with depths of 75 feet (23 meters).

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