I cannot believe you're about to do this.

- I'm Coyote Peterson,

and I'm about to enter the spike zone,

with the lionfish.

One.

Two.

Here we go.

Three.

Agh! Gah!

Oh, wow, it's gettin' worse, guys.

Ugh.

- [Mark] Okay let's get you home.

(dramatic music)

(mellow music)

- [Mark] Mmm.

It's almost time to head out to sea, how you feelin'?

- Well, you'd think I'd be excited,

which I guess I am, but I'm also out there

looking for my fate,

which is ultimately being stung by a lionfish.

That's our boat.

- [Mark] All right!

- Watch your step coming down here.

Life Aquatic?

All right, we we've got a lot of great space on board here

to set up all of our gear.

- [Mark] We're not diving today,

we're actually gonna free dive.

- Yeah, we are going to be snorkeling to get these lionfish,

we'll be in shallower water.

Now they are located deeper and shallow,

I mean they're all over the place from what I hear, so,

we've got about six hours out on the water

and hopefully in that amount of time

we're gonna come back with a lionfish.

- [Mark] All right.

- [Coyote] Today we are heading off

the coast of Islamorada.

We will be searching for one of these invasive fish

with the ultimate goal of showing you

how to treat the effects of their painful sting,

which is often experienced by both fishermen and divers.

Native to the Indo-Pacific,

these fish were first reported off of

Florida's Atlantic Coast in 1985,

and quickly began to spread up the Eastern Seaboard.

With no natural predators beside humans

the lionfish has become invasive enemy number one.

No one knows for sure how these fish

were introduced to the area,

but their numbers have increased rapidly

over the last 30 years.

So finding one should not be that difficult.

(dramatic music)

All right, guys, well we've made it

to our first dive site.

We're just off of the Florida Keys.

We've got the shore in the background,

and we're not too far out.

We can actually see the bottom of the ocean

just off the back of the boat,

which is perfect for snorkeling.

I'm gonna trade in my adventure cowboy hat

for a mask, a snorkel, and a dive suit.

We're gonnah head down there

and try to catch the notorious lionfish.

This is one of the most invasive species

out here in these waters,

and our captain tells us there is a 100% chance

we're gonna catch one, which means for you guys

I'm definitely going to be stung.

- [Mark] Oh boy!

- Here we go!

All right Mario!

- [Mario] All right, buddy.

See you later.

(dramatic music)

- [Coyote] Positioned just off of a shallow reef

we began to explore the craggy rocks.

The slow moving lionfish

is very distinct with its feathery looking fins

and calm disposition.

As long as we spotted one, catching it should be no problem.

In total we searched for about 30 minutes.

It didn't take long at all because soon enough

we had a lionfish in our sights.

(dramatic music)

Okay we got one.

- [Mark] It came back out, I see it.

- Yep.

- [Mark] It came back out through the coral.

- It's just floating there.

- [Mark] All right, let's try to get it.

(dramatic music)

- [Coyote] This was my moment, time to net the invader.

I held my breath and kicked hard.

Closing in on the fish, I scooped forward,

and after a little finesse of the net, I made the catch.

I did it!

I caught a lionfish.

- [Mark] Woo! Woo!

- [Coyote] Making sure to keep the spines

away from myself and the crew, I swam toward the surface.

- [Mark] We have it!

- [Coyote] What a beauty!

- [Mark] Wow, it was making right for us.

Did you see that?

- [Coyote] Yeah.

- [Mark] Aw man, did you get that?

- That was awesome.

- [Mark] Wow, okay, well stay back,

stay back a little bit from me.

Let's head back to the boat, we got our fish!

- Let's do it!

Woo hoo!

(dramatic music)

- [Mark] There it is, ladies and gentlemen,

the lionfish.

- [Coyote] There it is.

- [Mark] Give me that here, I'll uh...

- [Coyote] Can you bring that up?

Woo, look at that fish.

Beauty too, gorgeous, wow!

- [Mark] There you have it.

Look at those spines.

- I would say that the stage is set

for me to be stung by the lionfish.

Okay, let's get it into this bucket,

and let's get back to shore. (laughs)

In case you were wondering,

this invasive fish will not be released back into the wild,

but instead will be donated to a research group

in South Florida.

- [Coyote] Okay.

- [Mark] I see a tank, we need a fish.

- Here comes the fish.

Now, I'm gonna just scoop it up with this spoon,

and plop him into the aquarium, you ready?

- [Mark] Yep.

- [Coyote] Here he comes, one, two, three, woop!

There you go, buddy!

- [Mark] Wow.

You can see why people keep them in their aquariums.

- [Coyote] Oh, they're absolutely gorgeous.

I mean you can see why it's called a lionfish.

With those pectoral fins all spread out

it almost looks like the mane of a lion.

Now, they're also known as red zebra fish.

As you can see, those red stripes

kinda make it look like a red zebra.

Many different names for this fish,

but one thing and one thing only that we know

is that this is an invasive species here in South Florida,

and they can give you a pretty nasty prick

with those spines.

Now let's look at some of the anatomy of this fish.

Wow.

First of all those dorsal spines that you see

running along the top ridge of the fish

all 13 of those are laced with venom.

The venom on these spines is actually in grooves

that run along the side of the spines,

and you can see those fleshy things

hanging off the side, right?

- [Mark] Yeah, what is that?

- [Coyote] See that?

These are actually sheaths that the spines are in,

so when the fish gets agitated,

those spines come through the fleshy sheaths,

and then the venom is exposed.

So whatever gets spined onto there,

has the venom go into its system.

- [Mark] So those sheaths actually help put venom

on the spines too, right?

- They do, it kinda lubricates it with venom

and then when a spine goes into your hand, well,