How Lionfish Became the Ocean's Perfect Killer | Full Documentary

Armed with 18 venomous spines, it hunts, invisible to its prey, in packs, and is a multi-talented enigma, the red lionfish. Its home is in the shallows, in the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea. No other habitat on Earth can claim such a wealth and diversity of species, each one more striking than the last. The most remarkable of them all is the lionfish. Faster, cleverer, and with more skills than other fish, it is a natural survivor. It also has grand ambitions, spreading to new and unprepared waters, the Atlantic Ocean. The red lionfish has colonized vast areas from Africa to Australia and beyond. It lives in the tropical coral reefs of long coastlines and remote islands. At the Coral Triangle, where the Indian Ocean meets the Pacific, a uniquely diverse ecosystem has evolved, with over 4,000 types of fish making the coral their home. The red lionfish is the species that stands out, an unusual animal with unexpected talents, its top dog in the ultimate dog-eat-dog world. It may look like paradise, but every moment is a matter of life or death. Every small animal prey for a larger one. Despite appearances, there is little plant life here. Organisms that look like plants are actually animals with incredible adaptations. What seems to be a fern is really a cnidaria, and painful to the touch. These hard corals are actually made up of tiny animals covered in a protective chalk shell that grow into extraordinary shapes. But even a stone shell isn't immune to hungry fish. The powerful jaws of the titan triggerfish make short work of even the toughest exoskeleton. Nothing escapes the ravenous triggerfish. It devours the coral polyps as well as any creatures hiding in them. Hiding is one of the most common survival techniques here. These little chromises rarely leave their coral home. Yet there's no escape from the gold saddle goatfish. While the gold saddle goatfish in turn would be wise to avoid the stealthy giant moray. Yet even the giant moray, two and a half meters in length, is wary of predators and hides away as much as it can. The moon jellyfish can't hide and has no camouflage. Nor is it poisonous or able to bite, enticing for hungry mouths. While frequently nibbled at, the moon jellyfish's saving grace is that it consists mainly of water, making it a very unsatisfying meal. A male damselfish is on cleanup duty, clearing a spot for interested females to lay their eggs. And it works. A female partners up with him in the courtship dance. Tonight he will fertilize around a thousand of her eggs. But an unguarded clutch can make an easy meal. Nature can be relentless. Today there's eggs for breakfast and now a lionfish has taken over the spawning ground. Clownfish live in anemones that sting other fish. When the female dies, the largest male changes sex and becomes the only female. Clownfish are not born immune to the burning anemone. Instead, as young fish, they must expose themselves to the anemone's stinging tentacles to build up their immunity. When a clownfish dies, the anemone gets an extra portion of food. More venomous than the anemone, more skilled than a gold saddle goatfish, and more feared than the moray, the 40 centimeter long lionfish is an all-rounder with barbed venomous spines and a camouflage coat. Nature has been generous to the lionfish, endowing it with grace and beauty to boot. The large fins give it surprising speed. As with most fish, its lateral line allows it to sense differences in pressure so it can feel the presence of nearby swimmers. Above their eyes, young lionfish sport protrusions that look eerily like small fish luring prey towards its hungry mouth. A fatal beauty. Whatever gets too close to its 18 venomous fin rays may feel it for weeks to come. A special feature are its eyes. The lionfish sees the world in slow motion, enabling it with faster reactions. All these features combine to make the lionfish an extraordinarily successful hunter. Yet between dusk and dawn, its hunting times, the lionfish is rarely seen. Only on special occasions do they venture forth from their hiding place. The large coral is home to hundreds of thousands of fish. No wonder trevallies prowl the area looking for food. The key to the hunter's success is to slowly circle its prey, then lunge. The prey confuse the hunter by swimming as a single mass of shimmering silvery bodies. The sound of the hunt wakes other hunters. If there's a chance of sharing in the bounty, the lionfish are always nearby. By touching pectoral fins, they signal to each other that it's time to join forces. Biologists have shown that hunting in packs like wolves doubles their success rate. It also makes them much more successful than the trevallies. Soon the trevallies have had enough. They amble on to the next feeding site. With the activity dying down, most of the lionfish retire as well. They head back to their lair to spend the rest of the day asleep. But some lionfish are active in the day. This black lionfish has a completely different hunting strategy to the red. It swims just above the sandy seabed. Using its fins to corral any prey hidden under the sand. But how to uncover the prey? Simple. The lionfish blows water onto the sand to expose any hidden creatures. Nothing there this time. But what happened there? A small fish flees and is narrowly missed by the lunging lionfish. And again. A tiny fish flees from the hunter's approach. And another one. The entire ocean floor is teeming with hidden life. Hunter and hunted are all lightning fast. Fleeing, snapping, swallowing. It all happens in the blink of an eye. But the lionfish has a secret weapon that can only be seen with a very special high-speed camera. A very hungry fish. 26 delicate bones, as if folded by an ingenious origami artist, allow the jaw to extend like a telescope. This creates a vacuum that no prey can escape. Incredibly, this gulping is the fastest movement in the fish kingdom. Yet sometimes it waits too long. But only sometimes. The lionfish usually wins in the end. A seagrass bed not far from the coral reef. The wealth of species living here is not instantly apparent. Certainly few species are as bold as these squid. This jellyfish appears to be upside down. But it's all part of its plant-like disguise. Nearby, what looks like a snake or an eel is actually a snake eel. This one has reached its full length of around one meter. Fearlessly, it sticks its head into any hole it can find. It's searching for prey such as crabs, but could just as well find danger. Or it could find nothing at all. The geometric moray is also in search of crabs, though fish or worms will also do. But something else is not far behind. The lionfish follows the eel, waiting to catch any seagrass dwellers that try and make a swim for it. The eel is less than happy having a stalker. But the lionfish is not so easily shaken off. Soon, its strategy starts to pay off. The moray's loss is the lionfish's gain. With their stripes, fin rays and flippers, lionfish may look unusual. But their relatives are even stranger. Maybe better. The lionfish and this scorpionfish belong to the same family. These bottom dwellers are so well camouflaged that one wonders how they even find each other to mate. Unlike their lionfish cousins, they are not active hunters, but lie on the seabed waiting for prey to come to them. They have excellent eyesight. But if nothing moves in their field of vision, something remarkable happens. Ever efficient, their brain shuts down their vision. Even so, the slightest movement instantly switches it back on. It's like having a built-in screensaver. Another relative of the lionfish is not known for its beauty. The tentacled flathead or crocodilefish. Perfectly camouflaged on the seabed, it can lie motionless for days at a time. If a fish comes by, it quickly sucks in its prey. But the flathead isn't the strangest of the lionfish's relatives. It's hard to see the family resemblance between the flathead and the 10 centimeter long leaf scorpionfish. What they have in common though is incredible camouflage with the leaffish drifting along like a leaf in the current. Not so easily camouflaged, the black lionfish is about to meet one of its relatives. It has one last glimpse of freedom. Lionfish do not usually have to fear predators. Perhaps because their fin rays are so difficult to swallow. But today was not its lucky day. Dusk brings change out on the reef. The day fish look for a place to rest while the night hunters begin to wake. As darkness falls, the lionfish come out to hunt. But this evening promises more than just hunting. Even the lionfish's smaller relatives, the clear fin lionfish, are coming together for action. It seems it could be an eventful evening. At night, the coral reefs are almost more interesting than during the day. As the moon rises, sea urchins are on the move. Other creatures like the spinefoots gather together to sleep. Under the cover of darkness, a completely different world exists, usually hidden from the human eye. But if we turn the normal lights off and switch on the UV lights, something miraculous happens. These are the colors that fish see and communicate with, both by day and by night. It explains how the camouflage scorpionfish attracts a mate by glowing bright red. The lionfish, on the other hand, doesn't glow at all, staying well hidden from its prey. Its appetite is legendary, sometimes growing its stomach to 30 times its normal size. It can eat fish that are two-thirds its own size, but prefers smaller prey in large quantities. The lionfish is also unusually intelligent, quickly learning that the camera's light attracts its prey. But there's more to life than eating. For the clearfin lionfish, tonight has all the signs of being a very special one. The male, in particular, has some interesting plans. While the red lionfish is interested only in food, the male clearfin lionfish turns a seductive red and makes a move on the smaller female. Its aim is to get the female to somewhere they can mate, away from the reef. It doesn't work, and the female swims away. Luckily, the male has other options. Male clearfin lionfish keep a harem of five or six females. He tries the first, gently checking whether she's ready to mate. It would seem not. Time to move on to the next. This time, things are looking up. But no. The females are often 30 to 40 meters away from each other, but the male always knows exactly where they are. This time, there's two together. Number one shows no interest. With number two, he advances carefully, avoiding her venomous fins. The evening is not going well, but he can't give up. And now he has competition. He dashes back to the other females, hoping they've had a change of heart. At last, he seems to be in luck. Mating lasts for a mere tenth of a second. But the night is young, and he gets several other chances. The females release two jelly-like packages, each containing around 6,000 eggs, which the male fertilizes in a split second. These are carried along by the current. After three days, the larvae hatch. The spotfin lionfish are also small relatives of the red lionfish. Zebra lionfish have several harems, but the clearfin is much rarer than its red cousin. It's amazing to think that there is enough prey for all the growing number of red lionfish, since a female can lay eggs every four days. That's up to one million offspring in a single year. With its intelligence, its range of talents, and its willingness to eat almost anything, from tiny crabs to large fish, it would seem that the lionfish could flourish anywhere with warm water. The beauty of the red lionfish is also the reason for its popularity in aquariums. For the captured animal, it's the start of a long journey. Like nearly all fish from the ocean, the red lionfish cannot be bred in captivity, so every aquarium specimen must come from open water. The USA is one of the biggest buyers of wild-caught fish. Even though red lionfish are not easy to keep. Their appetite has been known to empty entire aquariums, and their venomous fins have caused many owners serious pain. No one knew that the red lionfish would become a problem, and now no one is quite sure how it happened. Perhaps fish that were set free were the cause, or maybe those carried in the ballast water of large ships. Perhaps both. Or it may have been the result of a natural disaster. Florida lies in the so-called hurricane alley. Coming from Africa, low-pressure areas heat up over the Atlantic, vaporizing large amounts of water. This creates suction that causes the low-pressure area to swirl faster and faster. As the wind speed increases, a hurricane is formed. In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit, the aftermath of which can still be felt to this day. For years, all seemed normal on Florida's reefs. No one noticed that life on the reef was changing dramatically. The ocean bed near the shores of the Atlantic is very different from that of the Pacific. There, stone coral dominates. In the Atlantic, there is far more soft coral and sponge. Red lionfish are not native to these waters. But the catastrophe begins to take shape. Florida's waters have many problems thanks to environmental damage and overfishing, but certainly not due to too many fish. Then, in the mid-90s, divers noticed the arrival of a newcomer. Most people were delighted at seeing such an exotic fish. They didn't notice that the red lionfish was eating bigger fish here than it did back home, and that its numbers were steadily increasing. Now, their population is booming. Here, it has even fewer predators than on the other side of the world. Big fish, like the grouper, are rare here due to overfishing, and don't see the red lionfish as prey. For spear fishermen, they are equally uninteresting, as they assume incorrectly that it has poisonous flesh. The fast-flowing Gulf Stream hurtles up the Florida coast, probably carrying larvae and eggs with it. In North Carolina, the seabed is covered not in coral, but in sand. These sandy areas have nothing to offer fish. Cliffs and shipwrecks, however, provide food and shelter from the current. This ship is a relic from the Second World War. Sunk by a German submarine in 1942, it's now a popular destination for divers. Sand tiger sharks are the biggest attraction. They are up to three meters long, but harmless. In the year 2000, divers made an unexpected discovery here. Red lionfish. Experts were baffled. Red lionfish had traveled from Florida to North Carolina, a distance of more than a thousand kilometers. The first find was not a one-off. The red lionfish had begun to spread over vast areas of America's eastern coastline. Soon, the marine biologists realized they had a serious problem. Even here, predators show no interest, not recognizing the red lionfish as prey. But no one knows why. For years, the red lionfish went unnoticed, but now its population is exploding. America's eastern coastline, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico have all been hit by cyclones that have helped the fish to spread. Incredibly, the millions of red lionfish that are now populating the Atlantic may stem from only six to nine fish. It's now considered a dangerous venomous pest and one that is causing deep-seated changes in the warm waters of the Atlantic. It eats entire coral reefs and destroys them. As a food source, the ocean is under serious threat. But it doesn't have to be this way. The Jardines de la Reina, the Gardens of the Queen, are a national park in the south of Cuba. More than 600 mangrove islands are home to numerous animals, some of which exist only here. Jutias come from the same family as porcupines and were, for a long time, the only mammals in the Caribbean. Cubans like to eat them with nuts and honey, but here in the Jardines de la Reina, they have nothing to fear. People come to this lonely spot because of the fantastic underwater world. The American crocodile can live in saltwater as well as in freshwater. As a result, it has been able to migrate from the United States to a variety of Caribbean islands. They eat anything that moves – fish, birds and mammals. Here, in the south of Cuba, they have everything they need. When Christopher Columbus discovered this area, he was so impressed by its beauty that he named it the Gardens of the Queen. And that was without even being able to dive and discover its true beauty. The mangrove forests are a protected area and nursery for many animals above and below the surface. The entangled roots offer shelter for the offspring. Even the upside-down jellyfish, the cassiopeia, makes a reappearance. But the Jardines de la Reina have even more to offer – an almost pristine underwater environment. Here, the ocean is like a time capsule. Everywhere else, pillar corals are rare. But here, they exist in abundance. Just like the Elkhorn coral, which is carefully protected in other waters. Also impressive are the many large fish. Big groupers are usually popular trophies for amateur and professional fishermen alike. Here, they are more plentiful than anywhere else in the Caribbean. Despite appearances, this specimen is not plagued by parasites. Just the opposite, in fact. The neon gobies eat anything that could cause them discomfort. Tarpon are under threat as sport fishermen relish the fight that dying fish wage against the rod. Here, they're safe from both rod and harpoon. The decades-long ban on commercial fishing has allowed a healthy and productive ecosystem to flourish. The ecosystem depends on the delicate balance between predator and prey, a balance that has been lost elsewhere in the ocean. Is it possible for one species of fish to ruin this paradise? Can the red lionfish overrun it as catastrophically as it's overrun other parts of the Caribbean? What would happen if the red lionfish appeared in the Jardines de la Reina? The truth is, it's been here for several years. So far, the catastrophe has been held at bay, partly because the sea here is healthy and resistant, and partly because people are taking action. The many sharks in the Jardines have developed a taste for the red lionfish, although they don't yet eat them without a helping hand from the locals. By harpooning the invaders, the Cubans are helping nature stay healthy. The strategy has worked so well that the Jardines look just as they did before the red lionfish's arrival. The sharks are getting a very good deal and don't seem to mind the venomous fin rays. But feeding sharks is not always as simple as it looks. The nature reserve of Jardines de la Reina is proof that a healthy sea can withstand the arrival of an intruder like the red lionfish. In Florida, the problem is much greater, so the solution is more intense. For experienced divers, it's like picking apples from a tree. Contestants in harpooning competitions kill thousands in a single weekend. Restaurants put them on the menu. For the first time in human history, an environmental problem is being solved by overfishing. But if one dives a little deeper, the red lionfish shows its ingenuity once more. In the Atlantic, it swims far deeper than biologists ever thought possible. Divers can go down to 40 meters with their harpoons, but red lionfish can go much deeper. This multi-talented survivor has conquered the Atlantic. And it's not stopping there. From the Red Sea through the Suez Canal, the first red lionfish have now reached the Mediterranean.