Lionfish Sampling Day 5: Hunting for lionfish

Searching for lionfish while diving seems like the easist job on the planet. Lionfish are large. They have red and white stripes and long trailers all over all of their fins. It seems like they should be the most obvious fish on the reef. However, there are a few things that actually make them a little tough to spot. 

First, they really like to hang out inside of holes, under ledges, and generally anywhere kind of dark and dank. They group up in the best holes, sitting next to each other. They love to hang out upside-down inside of these holes. In order to spot them, you often have to hang upside-down, stick your head into a hole and then look really hard. No one ever expects to see a fish sitting on the ceiling, even under water. 

The second thing that makes lionfish hard to spot is those long, frilly fins. Although the fins look extremely obvious on their own, when looking for them among sea fans, sponges, algae and other organisms flowing in the current, it's really quite difficult to distinugish the fish fins from any of these other living things.  

The third thing that makes lionfish difficult to spot fact that those stripes are actually a form of disguise called "disruptive coloration." Many species of reef fish employ this tactic much like zebras in the grasslands. By disguising thier eyes, having irrregular vertical bars, and frilly fins, they blend right in with the background. Potential prey and predators never even notice that the lionfish is there until it's too late. 

These facts conspire to make a large and conspicuous-looking fish somewhat difficult to spot while trying to cover every inch of 3000 square meters of dense reef habitat.