Eat ‘Em to Beat ’Em: Lionfish Cuisine Puts an Invasive Species on the Dinner Table

In Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida, local chefs, conservationists, marine biologists, and tourism officials are working to turn an environmental threat into culinary and recreational gold

Alex Fogg, marine biologist and local "lionfish guy," is working with the tourism bureau to fight invasive lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico. Courtney Platt

Can you make a silk purse from a sow’s ear?

The citizens of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida, are trying. In this case, the dubious item is no part of a pig, but an invasive, rapacious Asian fish that has mushroomed along both coasts of Florida, across the Caribbean, and into the Atlantic as far south as Brazil—the lionfish.