Abstract

Biological invasions represent a serious threat to biodiversity because they cause extinctions to native species through predation, competition, and diseases, which in turns may cause economic losses. The Indo-Pacific red lionfish, Pterois volitans, was introduced, intentionally or accidentally, into the waters off Florida, USA, back in the 1980s, and now the population growth of this fish turned out to be a biological invasion that threats the coral reef biodiversity in the Western Atlantic. As an alternative for management and control of its invasion, government and conservation groups from the region are now recommending physical removal methods as a measure of eradication, including derbies, safaris and fishing tournaments. At the same time, those groups suggest the lionfish as candidate for human consumption through gastronomic delicacy. In fact, since 2010 various fisher groups in the Bahamas, Belize and Mexico have organized lionfish degustation events where local people liked eating the fish as ceviches and fish fingers. In this work, I discuss the viability of promoting such gastronomic use which it may foster the creation of an interna-tional market that, if economically attractive to people, it may generate the opposite results to those proposed for eradicating this invasive fish.

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