Study suggests eating invasive species to protect marine ecosystem

ANTALYA

The ecosystem in Turkish waters may be protected from invasive and poisonous lionfish by consuming them as food, a study has suggested.

Turkish experts put forward a perspective that lionfish should be consumed for food purposes and so that their damage to the ecosystem may be reduced in line with a study carried out at the Mediterranean Fisheries Research Production and Training Institute.“

There is no poison in the meat of lionfish. Only the poisonous spines on the body of the fish threaten human health.

There is no problem when you cut them properly with the help of a knife,” said Merve Karakuş, a fisheries technology engineer at the institute.

Revealing that the meat of lion fish is almost a protein store, the study claimed that selling lionfish on the market would not only provide economic gain but also reduce the pressure on the ecosystem by controlling the spread of invasive species.

The lionfish migrated to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal and is especially common in the northeast Mediterranean. The first one in Turkey was recorded in 2014 and later spread along the Turkish coast from the southern province of Mersin to the bay of Antalya and all the way up to Izmir.