Fishermen in Cyprus battle invasive lionfish — by turning them into tavern delicacy

Описание: (27 Dec 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

++SOUNDBITES PART OVERLAID++

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Larnaca, Cyprus - 20 December 2025
1. Fisherman Photis Gaitanos pulls up a fishing line as he seeks to catch toxic toadfish
2. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Photis Gaitanos, Professional fisherman:
"Another foreign fish which appeared after the toadfish was the lionfish, which is dangerous to marine biodiversity, because it consumes all of the offspring. It leaves nothing and it multiplies because it has no enemies. It’s very dangerous for all fish in the areas where it multiplies and stays."
3. Squirming toadfish at bottom of rubber can
4. Various of Gaitanos tries to untangle a lionfish on the deck of his boat from the fishing net

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Larnaca, Cyprus - 18 December 2025
5. Frontal shot of Stephanos Fish Tavern

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Larnaca, Cyprus - 20 December 2025
6. Wide of varieties of fish in styrofoam crates as displayed at the market
7. Close of a sign reading 'lionfish' in Greek and showing the price in euros
8. Fishmongers clean fish for customers

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Larnaca, Cyprus - 18 December 2025
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephanos Mentonis, Owner of Stephanos Fish Tavern:
"In the last year, they started promoting it so that people can learn about it and it helps to counter it. When people learn to use it, to consume it, it’ll have more of a demand and automatically it’ll be countered all the more because if no one wants it, why should we fish it?"
10. Tavern owner Stephanos Mentonis places fresh lionfish on ice




STORYLINE:
Photis Gaitanos’ fingers, worked rough over decades of handling fishing line, adroitly untangle the lionfish’s venomous spikes from his net, throwing the exotic-looking creature into an ice-filled rubber bin along with other fish from the day’s catch.  

Unlike a few years ago when he would have mostly caught local staples as sea bream, red mullet or bass, the veteran fisherman now hunts for the invasive species that made its way from the Red Sea to the warming waters of the Mediterranean,

Much of what he catches from aboard his boat Anastasis are lionfish, which is gobbling up Indigenous fish stock and putting the island’s roughly 150 professional fishermen under tremendous strain to maintain their livelihood.

But the lionfish, with their red and orange-hued stripes and antennae-like barbs that menacingly ward off enemies, aren’t even the worst of it.

Another Red Sea fish, the voracious silver-cheeked toadfish that has also made the eastern Mediterranean its home in the last decade or so, is an eating machine whose powerful jaws cut through fishing nets, decimating fishermen’s catch.

Without any natural predators, the toadfish population in waters off Cyprus has exploded.

And if you thought it might turn out to end up on anyone’s dinner plate, not a chance — the lethal toxin it produces makes it inedible.

Gaitanos has for years fished in an area a few kilometers (miles) off the coastal town of Larnaca that was once famous for its fishing bounty.

Now, he says, it’s been more than two years since he’s seen dining favorites such as the red mullet in his nets.

"Another foreign fish which appeared after the toadfish was the lionfish, which is dangerous to marine biodiversity, because it consumes all of the offspring," the 60-year-old Gaitanos explains.

According to Cyprus’ Fisheries Department, models show that warmer seas as a result of climate change could see lionfish swarm the entire Mediterranean by century’s end.


It’s not just the waters around Cyprus.





The toadfish are then destroyed.







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