Abstract

The invasion of the Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois miles and P. volitans) has the potential to become one of the most ecologically and economically harmful marine invasions to date (Albins and Hixon 2013). Since their introduction off the coast of Florida in the mid-1980s their numbers and range have expanded rapidly, with the first sighting in Bermuda in 1999 (Whitfield et al. 2007, Schofield 2009). Despite this, the true distribution of the lionfish population across Bermuda’s reef systems, and much of their invaded range, is still unknown. Such information is vital for effective management programs. This piece of research attempts to address this lack of knowledge through the generation of a species distribution model (SDM) based on known lionfish presence locations and various environmental predictors.

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