Abstract

Lionfish are an invasive species in the Atlantic, and by consuming small fishes severely impact fish biodiversity on coral reefs. Efforts to control lionfish by using divers to spear them have been developed, usually by local government agencies. We explored the operation of a grass-roots lionfish removal program in the British Virgin Islands, Reef Guardians BVI. Local volunteer divers spear lionfish in their spare time and use a Facebook group to record and coordinate their activity. We first compiled 654 activity reports from Facebook, dating from the start of group activity in 2012 until present. Volunteers concentrate most of their efforts on a few dive sites of economic interest, while visiting other sites just a few times each year. Most removals are done by a core group of locals when weather conditions are best for diving (spring), whereas a much larger group of visitors to the islands contribute primarily by reporting lionfish sightings, sitings are effectively communicated to those actively removing lionfish. We surveyed lionfish densities and behavior at sites with varying levels of visitation to assess how frequently volunteers must visit sites to suppress lionfish populations, and whether frequent spearing visits makes lionfish more evasive.

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