A quiet hunter glides through the water. It’s searching for a fish. It spots just what it’s looking for: a spiny, striped fish, called a lionfish. But the hunter isn’t an animal. It’s a robot—called the Guardian LF1—designed to catch lionfish.
These fish are naturally found in the Pacific and Indian oceans. However, in the 1980s, lionfish invaded the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea (see Lionfish Invaders map, below). The fish are an invasive species in these regions. They ended up in these areas because pet owners carelessly dumped unwanted lionfish into the ocean.
Over time, lionfish numbers grew. And that’s a problem. The fish might look beautiful, but scientists have found that they’re destructive to ocean life.