Ocean Sentry
(From ap.google.com) San Juan, Puerto Rico – A maroon-striped marauder with venomous spikes is rapidly multiplying in the Caribbean”s warm waters, swallowing native species, stinging divers and generally wreaking havoc on an ecologically delicate region.
The red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that probably escaped from a Florida fish tank, is showing up everywhere. Wherever it appears, the adaptable predator corners fish and crustaceans up to half its size with its billowy fins and sucks them down in one violent gulp.
Research teams observed one lionfish eating 20 small fish in less than 30 minutes.
(By DAVID McFADDEN)
