The Sweet Taste of Conservation | Scientist <i>in vivo</i>

Do not try this at home.This is not the right way to eat lionfish! According to many biologists, you don't really know your research inside and out until you've tasted what you study (there is, quite literally, a badge of honor for it). I've known biologists who have chugged shots of plankton, taken bites from agar plates, and some have even drank water that's a billion years old to attain the dubious honor. You'd be surprised^* just how many times I've gotten into conversations about my research and my study organisms only to be interrupted by "that's great and all, but have you eaten them?" And every time, I had to hang my head in shame and confess that, alas, I had not. Now, I'm thrilled to report that while I was in Beaufort, NC to collect samples, I finally joined the cool biologists club. I ate my study species. And they are delicious. It certainly helps that I study lionfish. Unlike many of my colleagues, my fish are perfectly palatable, even downright mouthwatering. Still, until a couple weeks ago, I had never tasted the freshest delicacy to hit the southeastern US, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean. I say 'fresh' because lionfish are truly newcomers in the Atlantic, the unfortunate consequence of aquarium releases over time. These pretty, frilly fish are native to the Indo-Pacific, but have spent the past two decades making the warm waters from North Carolina to Venezuela home. They're one of the worst invasive species the US has ever had to face. Lionfish been called everything from cockroaches to a living, reproducing oil spill, and scientists fear that unless we can control their populations, they will cause irreversible ecological cascades, forever altering our marine ecosystems and threatening the species we care about most.