State: Poisonous lionfish cluster off coast

Two days later the friend, commercial spearfisherman David Hagan, saw six of the exotic fish. Hagan swam up close enough to capture a small one in a bag -- taking care not to get stuck by its dangerous, venomous fins.

"I hated to mess with that fish," Hagan said, adding, "They're pretty."

Brown shipped the bag to the Florida Marine Research Institute, where this week experts confirmed two years of rumors: It was a lionfish, native to Australia and Malaysia -- not Florida.

On Friday, the institute issued a public warning to all divers who might venture into deep waters anywhere off Florida's east coast: Watch out for the lionfish.

One prick from its fins can cause pain, numbness, paralysis, respiratory illness and, in rare cases, death.

"The dorsal, anal and pelvic fins have spines that are attached to glands that secrete this toxin," said Dan Roberts, a research scientist at the institute's St. Petersburg lab. "It's easy to get nailed by them. The points of these things are like hypodermic needles."

A California woman who sued a pet store for selling her a lionfish without warning her about the fins described its sting this way: "I immediately felt intense pain in my right hand. The pain was indescribable. It was as though one was taking a hammer and slamming at full strength the hammer upon my right thumb. It was excruciating. Then, the pain worsened. It was too terrible to think about."

Despite the risk, lionfish are extremely popular with tropical fish collectors, selling for anywhere from $50 to $100, according to Frank Sinatra -- yes, that's his real name -- who owns Aquarium Professionals in St. Petersburg.

"They have a little bit of a mystique to them, a little danger," he said.

In fact, the curious-minded can get a closeup view of lionfish at St. Petersburg's Pier Aquarium.

Although Florida ranks second only to Hawaii in the number of exotic species that have invaded the state, the lionfish is a rarity among exotics, said Roberts of the Florida Marine Research Institute. Virtually all of the others that have been found in Florida have been plants, animals or freshwater fish. The lionfish is one of the first saltwater species to relocate to the Sunshine State.

The Florida Marine Research Institute's experts do not know how the lionfish could have spread throughout Florida's offshore waters, but one theory blames Hurricane Andrew and the tropical fish industry. Miami is a central shipping point for the nation's tropical fish trade, Roberts said, so perhaps the 1992 hurricane that hit South Florida damaged a shipping company, allowing the lionfish to escape and start breeding.

"They're everywhere out there," said Hagan, who began spearfishing for lobster in 1973. "I've been seeing them for about the last year, year and a half. They usually start in about 120 feet of water and you see them out to about 200 feet."

State wildlife officials first heard reports of lionfish being seen near Key Biscayne, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, but nothing could be confirmed. Last summer, there were lionfish sightings off North Carolina, suggesting the Gulf Stream current had swept them north, Roberts said.

In June sport divers swimming in 120 feet of water about 35 miles offshore from St. Simons Island, Ga., killed a 9-inch red lionfish with a speargun. Then, last month, Hagan found the 6-inch one that went to the Florida Marine Research Institute.

Now that the lab has confirmed the lionfish rumors, the institute will step up its investigation, Roberts said. However, once word gets out about where to find free lionfish, there may not be as many available.

"As soon as the tropical fish collectors recognize them, they'll probably go out and start collecting them," he joked.

- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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