A simple Internet search turns up many recipes for lionfish, one of the most invasive alien species that devours the rest and reproduces at an almost breakneck pace.

The lionfish entered the Mediterranean from the Red Sea, was first seen in 2015 in Rhodes and is now found everywhere from Crete to the Cyclades and the Ionian Sea. Catching and eating it can help reduce its population, because it is a fish that, as we mentioned earlier, reproduce at an insane rate and … are constantly hungry. If we don’t eat him, he will eat everything in the seas.

So try the lionfish ceviche, grilled, steamed, pasta, in a variety of ways that famous chefs now recommend, touting it as the most delicious fish, and, I confess personally, I agree with them, it is very tasty.

I would like, of course, that the problem was only lionfish or German, both edible marine alien species. There are many others that are inedible and are a disaster for the ecosystem.

The heat waves of recent years are changing the Mediterranean Sea and have a great impact on marine life. This summer, Mercator Ocean International measured sea surface temperatures in the western Mediterranean between 28 and 30 degrees Celsius, 5 degrees above average. Warm Mediterranean waters cause migration of invasive fish such as barracudas (hammerheads) and hares, as well as rays.

The invasion of marine alien species would not be so intense if overfishing did not take care of the depletion of natural predators. If, for example, rays were more numerous in our seas, they would eat enough invasive fish, if there were a large population of sea turtles, jellyfish, their favorite delicacy, would not spread to such an extent. Nature has ways to correct spelling errors and overcome many problems; where a person had a hand, everything becomes more difficult.

The climate crisis, overfishing, overexploitation of natural resources, greed, all human activities create an almost nightmarish future. A future that is much closer than we imagine.