While the lionfish may look spectacular, this venomous fish is a disaster for marine ecosystems. In the Bahamas alone, the invasive lionfish will eat 72 different species, far more than any other local predator; a single lionfish in a coral reef can reduce native reef fish by 79 percent. Reducing lionfish populations is a must if we want to save coral reefs, but the problem with these fish is that they don’t respond to bait, meaning they’re very difficult to catch. To solve this problem, the inventor of the self-driving vacuum Roomba has designed a subaquatic robot that can capture lionfish. The robot, which has been named The Guardian, can dive to the depths where lionfish breed and stun them with electricity before sucking them into a tube. Once it collects a bunch of lionfish, the robot steers its way to the surface where operators can take out the lionfish and send the robot back down for more. And don’t worry, the captured lionfish aren’t wasted. Instead, they are sold to restaurants and grocery stores who sell them as a means of encouraging more fishing.
The inventor of Roomba designed a subaquatic robot to hunt invasive lionfish
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