Lionfish - New Pirates of the Caribbean

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 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 pray 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 naidaria 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 goats fish while the gold saddle goat fish in turn would  be wise to avoid the stealthy giant moray yet even the giant murray 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 the 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 damsel fish 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 goat fish and more fear 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 sports  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 it's 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 trevally's prowl  the area looking for food the key to the hunter's success is  to slowly circle its prey then lunge the prey confused 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 trivallis soon the trivallis 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 and 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 so 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 moire 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 morey'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  scorpion fish 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 screen saver another relative of the lionfish is not  known for its beauty the tentacled flathead   or crocodile fish 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 scorpion fish 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 spine  foots 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 scorpion  fish 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 prefer 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 clear fin lionfish tonight has  all the signs of being a very special one the male in particular has some interesting plans while the red lion fish 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 cliffin lionfish keep a  harim 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 released 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 so the spot finn lionfish are also  small relatives of the red lion fish   zebra lionfish have several harems but the cleophin is much rarer than its red cousin it's amazing to think that there is enough prey  for all the growing number of red lion fish 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 lion fish would become  a problem and now no one is quite sure how it   happened perhaps fish that was 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 vine 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 hardiness 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 julias 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 salt  water as well as in fresh water 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 opposites in fact   the neon gobies eat anything  that could cause them discomfort tarpon are under threat as sport fishermen relish  the fight the 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 a lucky escape 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 you

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Keywords: Free High-Quality Documentaries, HD, Full HD, Red lionfish, Titan triggerfish, Chromis, gold saddle goatfish, giant moray, moon jellyfish, damselfish, clownfish, Orange-spotted trevally, squid, Upside down jellyfish, snake eel, geometric moray, scorpionfish, crocodilefish, leaf scorpionfish, clearfin lionfish, sea urchins, spinefoots, Spotfin lionfish, Zebra lionfish, Grouper, Sand tiger sharks, Hutia, American crocodile, pillar corals, the elkhorn coral, Neon goby, pest, prey, Scourge

Id: 1w9e7-bcT84

Length: 52min 1sec (3121 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 04 2022