Non-native Lionfish invade the Atlantic

Revisiting a blog I did for the Lionfish documentary shoot 07/27/2006

Topside research scientist James Morris' excitement is palpable. An earlier lionfish retrieval hadn't yielded what he was looking for: eggs and sperm to fertilize, to incubate lionfish larvae. But now Christine Addison, scientist and diver, proudly hands him a lionfish plump with eggs. She's just brought it up from a 120-foot dive on the reefs off North Carolina where beneath the endless blue waves and rich Gulf Stream waters, is a hidden Garden of Eden of the sea.

We set sail today promptly at 0900 aboard the R/V Nancy Foster. This 187-foot reincarnated Navy ship is massive, with so many levels I continually get lost, walking into walls and doors, up and down stairs, in and out (it seems) of the same room, through various head-banging hatches. Steaming out past Fort Macon, we did fire drills and abandon ship drills (including mandatory donning of our 'Gumby suits' - oversized orange neoprene survival suits with built-in footies and mittens that make getting in and out of them next to impossible), on our way to the specific sites where earlier research has been done.

Everyone is so excited to see what has changed and what has stayed the same; to gather their data, their temperature gauges, their eggs, and do their counts. I guess the thing that has struck me strongest so far is how excited everyone is! How enthusiastic and passionate they are about their part in the puzzling proliferation of this Indo-Pacific species in the coastal Atlantic.

And their enthusiasm is contagious. Norb Wu, our underwater cinematographer, does two underwater dives today and works endlessly to perfect his housing. Topside cinematographer, Curtis Callaway and I stay up 'til 2100, trying to light and film a beaker of eggs, reveling in the fact that today, the scientists think they may have solved a mystery about the lionfish' egg sacks.

Exhausted with the excitement and anticipation of the day, I tiptoe into the bunkroom I share with three other gals, slip in to my bottom bunk (more head-banging) and hurry to sleep, anxious for what the new day will bring. - Betsy Crowfoot