Lionfish, a beautiful and venomous predator fish of the Pacific has made headlines in recent years because they have been introduced in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea accidentally. The bad news is that they like it in the Atlantic a bit too much. The fish below was photographed in its native Fiji at a famous SCUBA Diving site called E-6.
See more of Fiji here.
Since Lionfish are venomous, common sense says you need to exercise caution when approaching them. The venom resides in the tips on the feathery and beautiful Dorsal and Pectoral fins. Wear gloves and a full wetsuit. I advise this for all diving as abrasion protection. Approach slowly from the side being aware that they may aggressively try to chase you off. Use the camera as your defense to gently control their advance. While they are aggressive, they do not mindlessly try to inject you. They are not as aggressive as Damselfishes or some Clownfish (biting).
This shot was done with a Canon camera with a Canon 20mm lens in an Ikelite Housing using a single strobe held above and to the left of the subject. Distance was about 6 inches away, the fish was about 12" long. Look to capture behaviors such as feeding or capturing pairs, etc.
NOAA has instituted a program called "Eat Lionfish." Since the fish in the Atlantic is now a serious problem, with no natural predators, populations are growing and threatening native species. Leave the native ones elsewhere ALONE!
To help with publicizing the effort, we have created a t-shirt that uses a variation of the shot above. It is available for sale here.
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