{"id":243251,"date":"2025-03-26T10:53:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T10:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodeastage.it\/demo\/rural-hack\/the-lionfish-is-the-tip-of-the-melting-iceberg\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T12:28:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:28:00","slug":"the-lionfish-is-the-tip-of-the-melting-iceberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ruralhack.org\/en\/the-lionfish-is-the-tip-of-the-melting-iceberg\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lionfish Is the Tip of the (Melting) Iceberg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Mediterranean is becoming an ideal environment for tropical species arriving through the Suez Canal, but then settling permanently, with incalculable damage to marine biodiversity and local economies. There are many ideas to address this phenomenon, from gastronomy to cosmetics, but the key issue is climate change: if we don\u2019t address that, we won\u2019t solve anything. <\/p>\n\n

Its scientific name is Pterois miles<\/em>, it originates from the Red Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and it was first identified in Mediterranean waters in 1991 in Israel. From that moment on, sightings have multiplied: Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and in 2023 it appeared in the waters off Calabria. Most likely, it arrived accidentally, in the ballast water of ships passing through the Suez Canal. <\/p>\n\n

Its common name is \u201clionfish,\u201d a name only slightly more reassuring than that of its close relative Pterois volitans<\/em>, also known as the \u201cscorpionfish,\u201d another tropical species already sighted in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n\n

The association with the lion comes from a sort of mane made of spines that characterizes Pterois miles, and which, along with its bright colors, makes it particularly sought after by aquariums\u2014only for owners to realize it\u2019s very difficult to manage, needs huge amounts of space, and any \u201ccompanions\u201d it\u2019s housed with will quickly become its food. This trait, perhaps, also makes it similar to the king of the jungle. <\/p>\n\n

Whether lion or scorpion, their spines are not just for show: they carry a toxic substance that helps them when hunting prey, but is also neurotoxic to humans who might get stung while fishing or handling them (the spines remain active even 48 hours after the fish\u2019s death). The consequences include intense pain, temporary loss of sensation in affected areas, occasional loss of consciousness, tachycardia, difficulty breathing\u2026 and all of this can last for several days. <\/p>\n\n

It’s Not About How It Got Here, But Why It Stayed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Now, if this species, along with many others, has been able to find a comfortable habitat in the Mediterranean, it\u2019s for reasons that have nothing to do with aquariums or even with more structural factors like the expansion of the Suez Canal\u2014which has significantly increased maritime traffic in the Mediterranean since 2015. Of course, that factor has had and continues to have major importance, to the point that we\u2019ve had to learn a new word to describe species arriving in the Mediterranean through trade routes: we call them Lessepsian species, named after the engineer who designed and oversaw the construction of the canal, Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps. Lessepsian species are those that migrate from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean; anti-Lessepsian species go in the opposite direction. However, the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, and migrating species were never a serious problem until the last few decades. <\/p>\n\n

So the real issue isn\u2019t how they get here, but how the Mediterranean ecosystem has changed\u2014if animals accustomed to very warm waters now find themselves so comfortable here. <\/p>\n\n

The central point is that the waters of the Mediterranean are getting increasingly warmer, and therefore increasingly welcoming to the lionfish today, as well as the blue crab, siganus<\/em>, pufferfish, and various types of jellyfish in past years.<\/p>\n\n

The current situation of the Mediterranean as a haven for tropical species is well described by Stefano Liberti<\/a> in his Tropico Mediterraneo (Laterza, 2024), which includes accounts from experts and sector professionals. Marine biologist Ernesto Azzurro, perhaps the leading expert on alien species in the Mediterranean, told him:\u201cOur sea is now a subtropical sea. This is not something that will happen in the future\u2014it has already happened.\u201dThe lionfish thrives in water temperatures between 22 and 26\u00b0C, and the Mediterranean, being a closed sea with shallow waters and slow circulation, heats up more quickly than the oceans\u2014at a rate of 0.4\u00b0C every 10 years. Think that\u2019s nothing? You\u2019d be wrong, because that means each human generation will find the water a degree warmer, leading to the disappearance of organisms that can\u2019t adapt and the emergence of others that once couldn\u2019t survive in these waters. <\/p>\n\n

This replacement, this change in Mediterranean biodiversity, is painful for many reasons\u2014the first of which is the speed at which it\u2019s happening. <\/p>\n\n

Local economies, consumption habits, and fishing activities can adapt to new species\u2014but not at this speed. When changes occur this rapidly, the most immediate and likely consequences are negative: the species fishermen know how to catch disappear, the economies built around them collapse, and the communities that relied on those activities empty out. This is already happening: fishermen in the southern Mediterranean are selling their boats to smugglers, their children are migrating in search of a future elsewhere, coastal tourism is dwindling and dying out\u2014precisely because the communities that once sustained those territories are disappearing. <\/p>\n\n

The lionfish is certainly not the first \u201cunwelcome guest,\u201d but it\u2019s one of the most concerning<\/strong>, for several interrelated reasons:<\/p>\n\n