Lionfish are beautiful creatures, so when I’ve seen them speared I’ve sometimes felt momentarily sad. However, the sentiment passes quickly when I remember the monster we’re up against.
Originally from the warm tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, the splashy, venomous fish—whose spines can produce a horribly painful sting—appeared one day off the coast of South Florida in 1985. How the creature got there remains a mystery, and it’s rapid spread throughout the waters of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and along the eastern coasts of both North and South America has astounded marine scientists.
What’s the big deal, you ask? Lionfish are voracious eaters. They prey on just about any small fish or invertebrate species, noshing on those little guys like someone going free range at a casino buffet. They eat and eat and eat, and when they’re full they purge themselves and start again. The problem, of course, is that when they’re done, there are no little fish to grow up into big fish, leaving our reefs decimated of most marine life.
And the worst part is lionfish have no natural predators. So if something isn’t done to stop them, the Great Mexican Reef—the second largest barrier reef in the world which stretches from the Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Brazil—will be nothing but a dead zone.
So what do we do? It turns out that once those vicious spines are removed lionfish are quite yummy, but because they’re not very big, fishermen often decline to hunt them. A number of places throughout the Caribbean sponsor lionfish roundups and chef competitions in an effort to get diners interested in eating the fish, but the animals reproduce so rapidly—they release 50,000 eggs every three days year round—that all those plates of lionfish ceviche, blackened lionfish, and lionfish tacos hardly touch the problem.
So here’s where I introduce my friend Phil Karp. As an aside, let me point out that Phil and I grew up in the same town in New Jersey. Though we didn’t know each other, we struck up a conversation at our 50th high school reunion and discovered we shared a love of scuba diving.
Phil is one of those problem-solver types. He’s been diving all over the world and the lionfish issue vexed him. He wondered if there might be a way to increase the value of the lionfish making it more attractive to fishermen. Then, he looked at the stunningly-spotted spines and fins on the creature, gathered a bunch in a ziplock bag, and located a couple of jewelers. Together they created a line of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.
And that’s not all. Phil began traveling around the Caribbean, spreading the word and teaching local women how to make the lionfish jewelry, an endeavor that not only increased the value of the fish up to 40%—which gave fishermen more of an incentive to catch it—but also provided women with a beautiful product to sell.
Is lionfish jewelry enough to stop the assault? Maybe not. But it’s a way to keep the problem in the public eye. And when we add those pretty baubles to lionfish recipes and lionfish tournaments and scuba divers always at the ready to spear the little buggers, maybe we can make a dent.
So, my thanks to Phil for his inventive idea. Now, let’s come up with some more.
Your Forgotten Sons
Inspired by a true story
Released June 6, 2024
Anne Montgomery
Bud Richardville is inducted into the Army as the United States prepares for the invasion of Europe in 1943. A chance comment has Bud assigned to a Graves Registration Company, where his unit is tasked with locating, identifying, and burying the dead. Bud ships out, leaving behind his new wife, Lorraine, a mysterious woman who has stolen his heart but whose secretive nature and shadowy past leave many unanswered questions. When Bud and his men hit the beach at Normandy, they are immediately thrust into the horrors of what working in a graves unit entails. Bud is beaten down by the gruesome demands of his job and losses in his personal life, but then he meets Eva, an optimistic soul who despite the war can see a positive future. Will Eva’s love be enough to save him?
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Anne Montgomery’s novels can be found wherever books are sold.
Author Anne Montgomery 
I had never heard of these fish and it makes you wonder at their place in the food chain, presumably they have no natural predators?
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They do not in our part of the world, TS. In their native habitat in the Indo-Pacific they do. Also, those not in our backyard don’t eat endlessly. Scientists have no idea what is causing them to eat to excess. It’s frightening.
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