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Good practice Imported

Roatán Marine Park Lionfish Removal Programme

Honduras · Roatán · See the Honduras profile

Evidence: Quasi-experimental Top 81% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Roatán Marine Park licenses divers ($70 fee) to spear invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish across Honduras's Bay Islands; a peer-reviewed 2017 study found 95% lower lionfish biomass and 30% higher native prey-fish density on regularly harvested reefs versus unharvested sites.

-95%
Lionfish biomass on regularly culled reefs vs. non-removal sites (2017)
+30%
Native prey-sized fish density on culled reefs vs. non-removal sites (2017)
2.76 ± 1.72 lionfish/fisher/hour
Catch-per-unit-effort (2017)
70 USD
Diver license fee
50-60%
Share of RMP conservation budget from voluntary fees
40 restaurants
Restaurants serving lionfish
Roatán Marine Park Lionfish Removal Programme

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Roatán Marine Park / Bay Islands Conservation Association
Period
2011-present
Keywords
invasive species control, marine protected area management, licensed spearfishing, reef monitoring

Context

Lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles), native to the Indo-Pacific, invaded the Caribbean in the 2000s and reached Honduran waters around 2009. As voracious generalist predators with no natural Caribbean predators, they consume juvenile native reef fish and invertebrates at rates that can suppress local fish populations and threaten reef resilience.

Objectives

Control the invasive lionfish population on Roatán and Utila reefs and build a sustainable commercial incentive for continuous removal, alongside funding the park's broader reef patrol and conservation work.

Activities

The Roatán Marine Park (RMP), with the Bay Islands Conservation Association, runs a community-based licensed-spearfishing programme: for $70, divers and tourists get a license, a pole spear and an hour of training. A parallel market-development effort trains local fishers to catch, clean and sell lionfish, now served at around 40 restaurants across Roatán and Utila and sold to mainland grocery stores.

Results

A peer-reviewed 2017 PeerJ study (Anderson et al.) comparing regularly culled reefs (2-3 culling dives/month, mean catch-per-unit-effort 2.76 ± 1.72 lionfish per fisher per hour) against non-removal control sites found 95% lower lionfish biomass and 30% higher densities of native prey-sized fish on removal reefs, though no significant difference in overall native fish species richness or diversity between the two.

Conclusions

Because lionfish reproduce prolifically and deeper mesophotic reefs beyond recreational diving depth remain largely unmanaged as refugia, the programme functions as ongoing population control rather than eradication, requiring sustained effort.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Roatán Marine Park staff, Bay Islands Conservation Association, Trained licensed divers/tourists, Local fishers trained in catching/cleaning/selling lionfish

Conditions for success

  • Low-cost licensing/training scheme ($70, pole spear, 1-hour training) lowering the barrier to participation
  • Commercial market development (restaurants, mainland grocery stores) to sustain removal beyond conservation goodwill
  • Diversified funding: fees fund 50-60% of park enforcement/conservation budget

Common failure modes

  • Lionfish females release tens of thousands of eggs every few days, so populations rebound quickly without sustained effort
  • Deeper mesophotic reefs beyond recreational diving depth remain largely unmanaged, acting as refugia/source populations

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

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