Spotfin lionfish threats
The level of exploitation in fisheries and the aquarium trade is not suspected to be a major threat at this time. Due to its affinity with coral reefs, we suspect that this species may be experiencing population declines due to habitat loss in parts of its range. However, this species also occupies rocky reefs, and therefore significant global population declines are not suspected.
As of 2008, 15% of the world's coral reefs were considered under imminent threat of being "Effectively Lost" (with 90% of the corals lost and unlikely to recover soon), with regions in East Africa, South and South-east Asia, and the wider Caribbean being the most highly threatened (Wilkinson et al. 2008). Of 704 zooxanthellate reef-building coral species which were assessed by using the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List Criteria, 32.8% are in categories with elevated risk of extinction (Carpenter et al. 2008).
