Q14: What is the status of non-indigenous species and how is it changing?

Notable Invasive Species

Lionfish

Although beautiful, the invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans) poses a major threat to FKNMS native wildlife.

lionfish photo

The lionfish is spread throughout the FK as shown by the following map of Pterois volitans occurrence records in OBIS:

data <- robis::occurrence("Pterois volitans", geometry = "POLYGON ((-83.15 25.65, -80.066667 25.65, -80.066667 24.3, -83.15 24.3, -83.15 25.65))")

## Retrieved 717 records of 717 (100%)

# for robis v1:
#robis::leafletmap(data)

# for robis v2:
robis::map_leaflet(data)

The rate of occurrences in the FK is a very recent development. The following timeseries of occurrences in OBIS shows just how quickly the lionfish has spread.

ggplot2::ggplot(data) + ggplot2::geom_bar(ggplot2::aes(date_year), width = 1)

As of 2018-12, the OBIS data on this area is sparse, with all (or almost all?) data coming from the Reef Visual Census (RVC) program.