Nature is not to be trifled with. Ecosystems have a natural balance between predators and other species, and disrupting that balance can have far-reaching consequences.
That is what happened in the Western Atlantic after an invasive lionfish was introduced in the mid-1980s. The species, purportedly released from aquarium, spread from southeastern Florida to the southern Caribbean, putting pressure on native reef fish and altering coastal ecosystems. A study published in Aquatic Invasions traces how the predator expanded across the region in less than three decades, helped by its high reproductive rate, lack of natural predators and efficient hunting strategy.
