Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
POISSONS DE POISON
If we have learned anything about travel and the environment, one of the more obvious
lessons is: if you find a dangerously poisonous fish in the tropics, don't release it in non-
native waters.
Sadly, someone in Florida did not get this memo. To be fair, experts don't believe
someone intentionally released the striped, spiny, venomous lionfish into Florida waters
on purpose. The theory is some aquarium lionfish were swept into the water after Hur-
ricane Andrew in 1992. The problem? Lionfish are eating machines with no natural pred-
ators, and they are disconcertingly adept at both breeding and poisoning native fish to
death faster than you can say 'Finding Nemo. In the two decades since they've invaded
these waters, they've spread like a striped plague across the Atlantic and Caribbean.
Lionfish are detrimental for several reasons. Their environmental impact is, first and
foremost, enormous; they can lay 30,000eggs at a time and spawn as frequently as
every four days, according to a 2010 New York Timesarticle. That's a fairly huge break in
the fragile Florida food chain. Also, their stings hurt - a lot. While rarely fatal, a lionfish
sting is pretty painful, and while the fish are shy, there's so many floating about these
days folks are bound to feel the wrath of their fins every now and then. With that said, the
victims of stings are usually fisherfolk; the few Keys beaches are shallow and swimmers
are rarely at risk of coming into contact with lionfish.
The response of the fishing-crazy inhabitants of the Keys to these stinging swimmers?
Sting back. With spears, bait, line and tackle. The
Florida Keys National Marine Sanc-
tuary
has been holding lionfish derbies since 2010, and the response from local fisherfolk
has been enthusiastic; commercial fisherfolk, after all, stand to lose their livelihood if lion-
fish overwhelm the Keys. The spiny critters can be cooked (and taste pretty good -
they've a light, delicate flavor that's not terribly fishy) and are increasingly popping up on
Keys menus. So if you're down this way, push some culinary frontiers, have a lionfish fillet
- and help the local environment out all at once.
Plants
The diversity of the peninsula's flora, including more than 4000 species of plants, is un-
matched in the continental US. Florida, especially South Florida, contains the southern ex-
tent of temperate ecosystems and the northern extent of tropical ones, which blend and
merge in a bewildering, fluid taxonomy of environments. Interestingly, most of the world
at this latitude is a desert, which Florida definitely is not.
