Video: US Show Looks At Lionfish In Bermuda

The American morning television program ‘America’s Morning Headquarters’ [AMHQ] recently highlighted Bermuda and the robots that are helping decrease our lionfish population.

Host Katie Linendoll says: “When you touch down on the tiny island of Bermuda you quickly become captivated by the picturesque quality of the island. Some of the most gorgeous coral reefs in the entire world exist right here. However, the delicate eco-system is under attack by an invasive predator species known as the lionfish.”

Scientists working at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences [BIOS] also weighed in explaining how lionfish “consume juvenile reef fish” and do not clean the corals resulting in “a food-chain problem and dirty corals that are dying.”

The program goes on to introduce the robot that is now hunting lionfish: the Guardian LF1. The Guardian LF1 was the first device from Robots in Service of the Environment [RSE], a new non-profit formed by iRobot CEO Colin Angle and Science from Scientists founder Erika Angle.

On the program, Colin Angle describes the robot as “Scalable low-cost robotics is giving us a powerful new set of tools to tackle environmental issues.”

A BIOS representative concluded the program by noting: “Not many people are able to get down to these depths and we need something to help us along the way. The presence of the lionfish has had such a negative impact on the coral reef ecosystem that even the most staunch environmentalist coundn’t find a problem with removing it in order to maintain biodiversity and eco-system function on coral reefs.”