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,

that's how the venom enters your body.

Now, there are a couple different methods

that I could use to go about being--

- [Mark] Yeah.

- Spined here.

- [Mark] How are you gonna do this?

This seems really precarious to me.

- Well, the most dangerous thing,

and the thing that would be really unintelligent

would be to actually put my hands in like this

and try to pick up the fish from the side.

Ventral spines are shorter and thicker,

and they will actually put more venom into me

than I care to have put into my body today.

The dorsal spines also will inflict a lot of venom,

but I want to replicate what oftentimes happens to divers

when they run into these fish,

which is getting spined by the dorsal ridge.

So, I'm going to pick the fish up by its jaw,

it's not gonna hurt it in anyway whatsoever.

That dorsal ridge of spines is gonna fan up like that

'cause it's gonna feel threatened, it's out of the water,

and I'm going to wack my hand down on top of the spines

and venom is going to go into my skin.

- [Mark] Well, you've gone through

some stings and some bites.

How are you feeling about

this particular experiment, if you will?

- Well this will be my first marine stinging.

Technically it's not a sting, it's a stabbing,

or a barbing, or a spiking.

I'm a little nervous because I don't know

how my body will react to marine life venom.

We do have an epinephrine pen with us, as always.

We're also back here in civilization

so if anything goes extremely wrong,

if my body were to go into anaphylactic shock

we do have local medical experts on call

ready to receive me if something bad happens.

- [Mark] And you're good to go with this?

- No, I'm sweating.

I'm nervous, my heart is racing.

You can see the fish is completely calm right now,

just there resting on the bottom of the.

- [Mark] Oh! Oh!

- Ooh.

- [Mark] That's how you get it.

- That scared me.

- [Mark] There's water all over your--

- He flicked his tail at me. (laughs)

Yeah, that'll make you jump.

I thought I was gonna get it from the ventral spines.

There are three large spines on the back

that they'll flick your tail and get you with.

He didn't get me there, which is good,

but I think we're gettin' close.

Okay, we are just literally a couple minutes away from

me being stung by the lionfish.

You guys know I get nervous right before I do these things.

Those are some big spines.

I've never been spined by a marine creature before.

I have no idea how my body's going to react to this venom,

which makes me even more nervous.

- [Mark] It is time.

- Go Pro is officially rolling.

Okay, now, I'm gonna pick the fish up

from the front of its jaw,

and then I'm going to drop my hand on top of the spikes.

Now, I may be spined in the process

of getting it out of there.

If that happens I'm just gonna run with the scene, okay?

Depending on how bad it is.

- [Mark] Okay.

- Okay, I don't know what's gonna happen.

I'm actually gonna use the wooden spoon to turn it around.

I wanna hold it with my left hand.

I'm actually gonna position it...

Look at that.

Look at how it's turning the spines into the spoon,

can you see that?

- [Mark] Yeah, it's instinctively positioning the spines--

- [Coyote] It sure is.