As Morski writes, a few articles have already been written about the appearance of new, venomous and potentially highly dangerous fish in the Croatian Adriatic. The Devil’s Firefish (Pterois miles) has been seen several times in the waters of neighbouring Italy, and experts rightly expected that this species would spread very quickly to the Eastern, Croatian part of the Adriatic. Now it has become official, because the dangerous fish was filmed for the first time swimming near the Komiza seabed by an underwater photographer and diver, Damir Zurub.
”Today I had a close encounter with the invasive Devil’s Firefish (Pterois miles) for the first time, but not somewhere where it’s common to come across it. To be more precise, I took several photos of this fish in the Adriatic while diving with DC Manta near Cape Stupiste, near the coast of Komiza on the island of Vis – these are the first shots and probably the first recorded encounter with this invasive fish species in the Adriatic sea,” announced Damir Zurub, confirming that the fish was filmed at a depth of just fifteen metres, where he also recorded an incredibly high sea temperature of 24 °C.
The editor of the Podvodni.hr (Underwater.hr) portal, marine life expert Pero Ugarkovic, also commented on the finding:
”Three months ago, I learned that an individual from Italy was preparing to publish a paper declaring this fish a resident of the Adriatic. These were several finds near Otranto. I published this on the portal and announced that we might expect to see this fish in Croatian waters this year. Today, that happened, the first official find was discovered and photographed by Damir on Vis.
The fish is Pterois miles, people sometimes call it the Lionfish or the Devil’s Firefish. It will be constantly mentioned in the media because it is an invasive species that also has a poisonous sting, it will be said that it is a pest and that it is dangerous. There will probably be more and more of them, we’ll see them in the underwater picture galleries. Everyone will know about them, even those who have never even seen the Adriatic. Once the population is established as in Greece, catching them will be celebrated and encouraged, some modest means will be invested in its suppression. They will be sold at the fish markets, and chefs will come up with recipes.
But in the end, we will have to accept this fish as a common occurrence here, as everything changes. For centuries, we’ve been trying to intensively and indiscriminately catch everything from the sea, fill it up, build it up and pollute it. Each new generation remembers a different, more primordial Adriatic of their youth that will never return. For some future generation, the Devil’s Firefish may even become a symbol of Dalmatia,” concluded Ugarkovic when discussing the presence of this fish near Komiza.
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