Florida wildlife officials are thanking the public for helping them combat lionfish by downloading the Florida Lionfish-reporting app. It’s a way for residents to share sightings of the invasive species on the go.
Since its May release, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Spokeswoman Amanda Nalley says her agency’s lionfish-reporting app has been a success.
“… because it has been downloaded by more than 2,000 people,” said Nalley. “We’ve had people successfully submit their data via the app, and we believe it will continue to be a success in collecting data about lionfish.”
She says with more and more people using it every day, she’s heard positive responses as well as suggestions on how to make it better—which her agency expects to make in the near future.
“Some of the suggestions include additional fields for largest and smallest lionfish, allowing people to submit their data without having to take a photo, allowing people to use the photos that are already on their phones to submit to us,” she added.
And, Nalley says that data will be used for a variety of reasons,“such as determining what kind of gear people are using to catch lionfish, determining what areas lionfish are being seen, and that way we can know which areas might be a good place to target lionfish in the future for removal efforts.”
Lionfish are an invasive species with venomous spines that have no natural predators.
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