In addition to the thousands of tourists who flock to the island annually, it seems that someone has also found a paradise in Fernando de Noronha (PE): the lionfish. But unlike the visitors who drive tourism there, this animal is not welcome.
The fish, originally from the Indo-Pacific, has spread over the last three decades along the east coast of the United States, reaching the Caribbean and, in December 2020, it was recorded for the first time in Noronha — after other occasional sightings in Brazil (read more below). According to two scientists from Oregon State University (USA), the presence of this fish in places where it is not native has the potential to be one of the most ecologically harmful marine invasions ever observed.
Such a threat has mobilized Fernando de Noronha, where operations to search for the lionfish have taken place every fortnight, in a partnership between the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and local diving companies. On the 23rd, no animals were found; in early February, on the 8th, four lionfish were found.
According to Ricardo Araújo, research, monitoring and management coordinator at ICMBio Noronha, these searches have been like a “cat and mouse race”.
“The sea has no barrier, so the animal can go anywhere it wants, and we are few,” explains Araújo, who has coordinated operations with local diving companies.
“The best thing would be that it hadn’t appeared, but now that it has arrived, it’s practically impossible that it doesn’t establish itself. Noronha is a balanced place, with a very large marine fauna, the water is warm”, says the researcher, pointing out that the fish -leão has no predators in the archipelago (whose main island is of the same name, Fernando de Noronha) and, on the other hand, it has plenty of food, especially small fish.
“In other words, it has all the favorable conditions to develop here. We have found super healthy animals. It has already established itself and must be reproducing.”
After the first sighting of a lionfish in late 2020, there were no more sightings recorded in the first half of 2021. And then, starting in July 2021, every month there were sightings. Until February 24 this year, a total of 62 sighted fish and 38 collected were recorded.
The fish found are captured, killed and frozen until they are sent for study at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and the Fluminense Federal University (UFF) — part of them goes to the United States, where genetic analyzes are being carried out in order to clarify the origin of animals. The results of these analyzes are not yet available, but they will help, among other things, to answer precisely which species is living in Noronha, since they are two that usually invade habitats and are called lionfish: Pterois miles and Pterois volitans.
For each fish caught, information is recorded about the place where it was found and its length, which has increased over the months — from 18 cm in November 2021. so that you can understand exactly which species it is preying on.
MOBILIZATION OF DIVERS
Although there are signs that the lionfish is really enjoying Fernando de Noronha, the archipelago has a characteristic that has favored those who are participating in the search for the animal.
As one of the main tourist destinations in Brazil, including in the diving segment, Noronha “always has eyes” underwater — those of divers — capable of eventually finding a lionfish, explains Ricardo Araújo.
“What has worked a lot is this relationship with the diving companies, basically it is with them that we have been managing them”, says the ICMBio researcher.
“The company goes out for a dive with the visitor, and in the middle of this activity, the diver who is working spots the lionfish. If he already has the equipment, he can collect this animal himself. If not, he reports to ICMBio .”
The environmental agency has already trained four groups of divers to prepare them for the sighting and capture of these fish. Diving instructors were also asked to show tourists pictures of the fish and guide them on how to proceed when spotting one — in addition, lionfish have venomous spines on their body, which can cause a lot of pain and eventually serious allergic reactions.
In fact, there have already been three reports from tourists about what would be sightings of lionfish, but according to Araújo, they were not correct.
Sightings usually happen while scuba diving (with self-contained breathing apparatus) and away from the sand, further down. Therefore, those who have helped to find lionfish are very experienced divers who know the island’s species well and go to the depths where the invasive animals have been circulating. Some of the ICMBio divers and staff have a WhatsApp group to exchange information about sightings.
Diver and owner of the Sea Paradise diving school, Fernando Rodrigues says that his team was the first to spot the lionfish in Noronha, in December 2020 at a diving point called Laje dos Cabos.
“We filmed, got in touch with several scientists and with ICMBio, and they guided us on how to do it from now on”, recalls Rodrigues, adding that he and his team have been working with scientists for some time on their expeditions.
“Today, we already have sightings of lionfish at 85m, 50m depth… And we have already seen eight lionfish in a single dive. So, today, we are just confirming what experts say : which is a fish that reproduces very quickly and has a great capacity for adaptation. Here in Noronha, he found a paradise.”
In addition to sightings during daily activities with tourists, there are periodic operations in which diving companies take turns handing over their boats and equipment to search for lionfish. In addition to Sea Paradise, the company Noronha Diver is one of them.
“Since the beginning, companies have made themselves available to ICMBio. Of course, it is philanthropy, but everyone in Noronha lives off tourism and the sea. Diving is Fernando de Noronha’s main tourist activity, so we have to preserve the sea, because that’s what we live on. There’s no point in not doing that”, explains Paulo Ferreira, director of Noronha Diver and a diver since 1986.
LOOSE FISH FROM AQUARIUMS
Brazilian biologist Paulo Bertuol is well aware of the importance of involving divers in lionfish control.
He has lived since 2012 on Bonaire, a small island in the Caribbean where the lionfish was first caught in 2009, he says. Although not yet to be established definitively, Bertuol already went in 2010 to do a consultancy in the Caribbean island to try to control the animal.
Today, he is a senior biologist at the Stinapa Foundation, which manages Bonaire’s land and marine parks. Last year, he was in Fernando de Noronha, where he gave a presentation and training with the ICMBio team and divers to control the lionfish.
“I caught the situation [do peixe-leão em Bonaire] at the beginning, so this experience was extremely valid even to share with Fernando de Noronha, because I more or less took the internship [da invasão] that takes place there. I took some ideas to them and encouraged ICMBio as much as possible to share and utilize the resources of the diving industry, because it is the best way to try to control the lionfish. That’s what made Bonaire a success story,” says Bertuol, noting that in recent years the island he works on has kept the density of lionfish per hectare “relatively stable.”
The biologist, graduated from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and master in environmental science and technology from the University of Vale do Itajaà (Univali), explains that exotic species are those that are not native to a place — and these become invasive in the moment when they cause an imbalance and damage to the local fauna.
When asked by the report if the report that lionfish became invasive after being dumped from captivity in aquariums into the sea is a legend, Bertuol says this version is true.
“Possibly there are two main factors (which explain the appearance of the lionfish as an invasive). There is a current that says it could have been from an aquarium in the US where the tanks broke after a hurricane, and the fish escaped. And there’s another stream that says that people had the lionfish as a pet, suddenly it grows and starts eating other fish in the aquarium, and people release it into the sea. It’s interesting because this is a recurring story in several invasions from different people. species: the person has a pet exotic and suddenly, for whatever reason, released into the wild.”
According to the specialist, there is still a third route for propagation: ballast water from ships and platforms that end up carrying water with fish larvae.
For him, the animals that arrived in Noronha may have originated from larvae and lionfish that, with the sea currents, descended from the Caribbean to South America, with some passage through the Amazon River (the animal has the ability to withstand for some time in fresh water). A few lionfish have already been found at the mouth of the Amazon River in Pará, as well as in Arraial do Cabo (RJ) — but in none of these places has it established itself as firmly as in Noronha.
“I think that at some point it will reach the entire coast of Brazil, it is something that cannot be avoided”, laments Bertuol.
A FUTURE DELICY FOR NORONHA?
At least, Brazil will have examples to draw inspiration from.
In Bonaire, a “very important strategy” for controlling the animal was, according to Paulo Bertuol, encouraging the consumption of lionfish — which he says is “delicious”. Events were organized for the local population to taste the fish, and chefs were encouraged to include it in their recipes.
“Today, Bonaire is the island in the Caribbean that pays the most for a kilo of lionfish. Just by cutting its spines and selling the fish without the viscera, but with the head, restaurants pay US$ 15 (about R$ 77 ) a kilo; and if you make a filet, they pay US$ 50 (R$ 260) a kilo”, says the biologist.
There, “lionfish derbies” are also held, competitions to catch lionfish, while diving schools have courses that teach how to hunt the animal.
Ricardo Araújo, from ICMBio, says that the scenario in which the fish can become a delicacy also in Noronha is still far away, because the number of animals found is still quite insufficient for that. But he recognizes that there may be a multiplication of fish and, in this scenario, “aligning entrepreneurs and consumers” will be important.
“For now, there are many more questions than answers”, says the environmental analyst at ICMBio. “But we know that eradication will be practically impossible. Control (of lionfish) is difficult, but possible.” ​
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