- Title: Lionfish invasion in Cyprus? If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em
- Date: 17th July 2019
- Summary: SAARBRUECKEN, GERMANY (FILE, 2017) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF DEFENCE MINISTER URSULA VON DER LEYEN AND ANNEGRET KRAMP-KARRENBAUER AS SAARLAND PREMIER DURING A MILITARY EXERCISE IN THE AREA BERLIN, GERMANY (FILE, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL AND CDU GENERAL SECRETARY KRAMP-KARRENBAUER AT CDU EVENT SAARBRUECK
- Embargoed: 31st July 2019 11:09
- Keywords: Lionfish invasive species climate change Cyprus
- Location: LARNACA, CYPRUS AND AT SEA
- City: LARNACA, CYPRUS AND AT SEA
- Country: Cyprus
- Topics: Environment,Nature/Wildlife,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001AO63A6X
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: "Wanted, Dead or Fried", says the poster of a lionfish on the quayside in Larnaca marina.
Or even grilled, filleted or in a risotto. An EU-funded project has placed Cyprus on the frontline to deal with an invasion of marauding lionfish which have munched their way through the eastern Mediterranean in the past five years.
"Four years ago, we used to have one and everybody was going there just to take a picture of it and say 'wow, we see a lionfish'. Now, if you dive there is thousands,"
Larnaca boat skipper Christos Giovannis told Reuters during an expedition of divers off Larnaca in southern Cyprus on Monday (July 15) to capture another batch of the fish.
Divers said Cyprus has become a hotbed for the fish.
The lionfish's brightly coloured stripes and flowing pectoral fins may look beautiful but its dorsal fins pack a venomous punch, its sting is toxic, it spawns up to 30,000 eggs every four days and feasts on other fish and crustaceans. And it has no known predators. Well, not yet.
The EU-sponsored project aims to promote lionfish as a food, among other ways to control its rapidly expanding population.
So if you can't beat it, eat it.
"We hope that humans can become the enemy of the lionfish in the Mediterranean," Periklis Kleitou, a researcher at the University of Plymouth.
The university is engaged in the research project, known as RELIONMED, along with Cyprus's fisheries department, the University of Cyprus and two local research centres, the Enalia Physis Environmental Research Centre and the Marine and Environmental Research (MER) Lab.
Kleitou says warmer waters as a result of climate change and an enlargement of the Suez Canal have opened the floodgates to species normally native to the Indo-Pacific. Lebanon has faced a similar invasion of lionfish.
Chefs have been drafted in to give public presentations offering tips on how to gut the fish - scissors and gloves are a must when handling the fins to avoid a nasty prick or rash - and suggest preparation options like deep frying or cooking it on the barbecue.
"Lionfish can be cooked in many different ways, on the grill, fried...as long as you remove the spine that has the venom," said local chef Stelios Georgiou during a presentation on Monday.
(Production:Yiannis Kourtoglou, Michele Kambas, Vassilis Triandafyllou, Idyli Tsakiri) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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