Florida Keys being invaded by Lionfish

[sphelps]

While it may not be 100% scientific or ever 100% confirmed and it's even pretty far fetched, it's still better than the other explanations. Plus many invasive species have been introduced to the environment in similar ways before.

It's pretty clear that lionfish where introduced into the ocean buy the aquarium mentioned, so really how may lionfish does it take to start a new "society"? I also have no doubt that hobbyists commonly dump there over grown fish into the ocean if it's convenient, lionfish are very common fish, grow awfully fast, and are too big for most home aquariums. It's also confirmed that they can survive very well in this new environment.

But at the end of the day if the lionfish don't kill the Caribbean reefs the CO2 levels will so at this point don't loose any sleep over this. Try and get out there and enjoys these things in person before it's too late.