invasive fish

Go hunting for some lionfish or hit a local fishmonger up for some Asian carp—but just don't try either more than once a week.

Seafood lovers may be the big fish that keeps invasive species under control.

RODALE NEWS, EMMUAS, PA—Nowadays, when we talk about seafood, it usually has to do with what you shouldn't be eating, whether it's due to the disastrous effects of oil spills or because the fish have been so overharvested that entire fisheries are about to collapse. But not this time. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in conjunction with a few nonprofit ocean conservation groups, has recently launched a campaign to get you to eat a particular fish they want to go extinct, at least outside of its original habitat. And it's not the only invasive fish on the menu these days.

THE DETAILS: NOAA's campaign is focusing on the odd-looking lionfish, a species of fish native to the South Pacific that has invaded the Caribbean and the southern Atlantic Ocean. There, it gobbles up valuable shrimp, as well as baby snapper and grouper, two species that are just now rebounding from years of overfishing. It also competes with those two species for food, and because the lionfish has no known predators, it has run roughshod over ocean ecosystems, reproducing as much as 700 percent over the past two decades. "The urban legend of lionfish is that when Hurricane Andrew hit Miami in 1991, the wind came and apparently blew out the windows of these large glass buildings where people were keeping them in tanks as pets," says Michael Dimin, owner of Sea 2 Table, one of NOAA's campaign partners that works with fishermen from well-managed fisheries and connects them to chefs who want their product. "Half a dozen or so escaped and ended up in the Atlantic, and 15 years later they were covering the reefs from the Carolinas down to Panama."

Never tasted lionfish? "They're rather delicious to eat," Dimin says. "Crustaceans are their main diet, so they have a very sweet-flavored flesh, kind of like a snapper, but very delicious." Unfortunately, Dimin says, NOAA's scheme has run into a bit of a snag. "The fishermen and NOAA haven't really figured out an effective method of capture." Lionfish don't seem tempted by regular hook-and-line fishing methods, and they've outwitted traps. The only way people seem to be successful in catching them is the really old-fashioned way: spear-fishing. So the fish isn't yet on as many menus as it could be. "We have dozens and dozens of chefs who would love to serve lionfish for its culinary values, and we already have a pretty good distribution channel for them," Dimin says. All that's needed is the fish.