Abstract

Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) were first sighted off the Florida coast in 1985 and have since become one of the most abundant top level predators on some reefs in the Western Atlantic. Over the last fifteen years, researchers and managers from a wide range of institutions across the invaded region have allocated a great deal of resources to better understand the invasion. As a result of these efforts, a diverse wealth of invasive lionfish knowledge has been translated into a variety of products including fact sheets, training videos, management plans, and peer-reviewed literature. Having a way to manage and centralize this information has not been realized until now. We have created an Invasive Lionfish Webportal that serves as a clearing house and repository for all things pertaining to the invasion. The Webportal is broken down into a home page and four topic-focused interior pages including Education & Outreach, Research & Monitoring, Control, and Management. Each of the four sections has been built out into several content containing sub-sections with various features such as the Lionfish Literature Database, which is a searchable, query generating database of nearly 200 lionfish papers. In contrast to similar sites on the web, all of the information on the Webportal has been vetted by experts in the field, and the site is updated and maintained monthly. As the invasion continues, the Webportal will serve as a platform from which the public, researchers, and managers alike can retrieve and exchange the most up-to-date invasive lionfish information to better control and manage this invasive species.

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