Lionfish are threatening Florida's economy

Invasive lionfish are a serious threat to Florida's saltwater fishing industry — the second largest in the nation — and the thousands of jobs it supports, according to an economic commentary from Florida TaxWatch.

Some 109,000 jobs tied to recreational fishing, and the more than 64,000 dependent on the commercial fishing industry, bolster the state economy, the report reveals.

TaxWatch is a non-profit, non-partisan research institute devoted to protecting and promoting the political and economic freedoms of Floridians.

Dominic M. Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, pointed out that Florida fishing also "provides local food and unique tourism experiences, which must be preserved as they are critical pieces of Florida's diversified economy."

"By taking steps to control Florida's lionfish population, the state is protecting valuable Florida resources and needed jobs," he stated.

Florida Fish Wildlife Conservation Commission, according to the report, is working to control the population of lionfish by encouraging lionfish removal from reefs around the state, promoting a lionfish reporting smartphone app, and prohibiting lionfish from being imported for aquariums.

Ten lionfish derbies are planned this year starting in May throughout the state, including one in Pensacola, as a way to encourage spear-gun anglers to harvest the fish. The fear is the population is growing faster than the fish can be culled.

The TaxWatch report, however, does not cite a specific economic study.

Morgan McCord, spokeswoman for the Tallahassee-based TaxWatch, said the report is meant to only highlight issues impacting the state economy of which people should be aware.

"It's something we put out every month and topics range from lionfish to the impact of football collegiate play-off games," she said. "It's more intended to start conversations than start policy changes."

What makes the lionfish, native to Indo-Pacific waters, such a huge threat to the fisheries is they have no natural predators in Florida waters, their population is exploding exponentially, and they are competing with native fish, including grouper, for the same food source.

Since the first one was documented in the Gulf off of Pensacola in 2010, lionfish are believed to now number in the tens of thousands off the coast and are found on nearly every reef — 200 of them — off our coast. They are also being reported in Santa Rosa Sound and other inland waterways.

Rick O'Connor, Escambia County Sea Grant agent, is worried about the impact to the local economy from the invaders. He knows of no studies nationally or locally measuring those impacts.

He said scientists studying the stomach contents of lionfish in the Northern Gulf are finding them full of the same bait fish that snapper and grouper rely on, which could potentially be depleting important commercial and recreational fish stocks.

"A lot of (scuba) divers are reporting juvenile Mingo snapper are being consumed by lionfish, and we're watching them to see if their numbers drop," he said.

How this translate to the volume of fish being caught by vacationers or commercial fishermen is unknown, he said.

"We need an economist involved," he said.

Locally, O'Connor has not found an economist who has the time between other projects they're working to measure what's happening in the Pensacola Bay Area.

He said he's encouraged that TaxWatch is highlighting this issue, but at the same time he said it's time for some sound research to be done to measure how this invasive species is or may in the future impact our economy.

Want to help?

Pensacola's Lionfish Removal and Awareness Day Festival and Tournament is May 14-17 at Plaza de Luna, 900 S. Palafox Street.

Gulf Coast Lionfish Coalition is hosting the event. The event will feature informational booths, awards and a chefs' lionfish cook-off.

To register to compete in the tournament or for more details, visit http://www.gulfcoastlionfish.com/lionfish_events.html.