Document Type
Article
Abstract
Documenting and responding to species invasions requires innovative strategies that account for ecological and societal complexities. We used the recent expansion of Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) throughout northern Gulf of Mexico coastal waters to evaluate the role of stakeholders in documenting and responding to a rapid marine invasion. We coupled an online survey of spearfishers and citizen science monitoring programs with traditional fishery-independent data sources and found that citizen observations documented lionfish 1–2 years earlier and more frequently than traditional reef fish monitoring programs. Citizen observations first documented lionfish in 2010 followed by rapid expansion and proliferation in 2011 (+367%). From the survey of spearfishers, we determined that diving experience and personal observations of lionfish strongly influenced perceived impacts, and these perceptions were powerful predictors of support for initiatives. Our study demonstrates the value of engaging citizens for assessing and responding to large-scale and time-sensitive conservation problems.
First Page
242
Last Page
250
DOI
10.1111/conl.12127
Publication Date
2015
Department
Marine and Environmental Sciences
Recommended Citation
Recommended publisher citation: Scyphers, S.B., Powers, S.P., Akins, J.L., Drymon, J.M., Martin, C.W., Schobernd, Z.H., Schofield, P.J., Shipp, R.L. and Switzer, T.S. (2015), The Role of Citizens in Detecting and Responding to a Rapid Marine Invasion. Conservation Letters, 8: 242-250. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12127
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Comments
This article was published in the journal Conservation Letters by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology.
A link to the online published version can be found here:
https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12127
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The publisher's recommended citation must be used when citing this article.
This article is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license [CC BY 4.0], which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.