Lionfish Fishing in the Mediterranean: The Soldier Mistaken for a Mr Miles
Every article in this series answers the same question: how does the angler outwit the predator? With which bait, at what depth, at what time. With the lionfish, the answer begins with a name that half of Europe misreads. In English name lists it is called “Miles’ firefish” — as if a Mr Miles had discovered it. There is no Mr Miles. *miles* is Latin and means soldier. So the pole of this article is: the soldier that the name lists mistake for a Mr Miles. The fish is the devil firefish or common lionfish, *Pterois miles*, which has moved from the Red Sea into the eastern Mediterranean.
Wings, a soldier and a man who never existed
The origins of scientific names are recorded by the ETYFish Project, an etymological register of fish names. There, the genus Pterois comes from *pterus*, “fin”, after “Les Pterois” of the French zoologist Cuvier (1816), and refers to the high dorsal fin and long pectoral fins — the fans everyone recognises the fish by. According to ETYFish, the species name miles simply means “soldier”. ⚠️ Then comes the honest sentence: “allusion not explained” — Bennett, who described it in 1828, did not say what he meant. ETYFish cautiously suggests the red body colour, resembling the uniforms of 19th-century soldier-sailors, and explicitly writes “perhaps”. This article takes the suggestion as a suggestion, not a finding.
The soldier has left traces in the name lists. The GBIF list for *Pterois miles* (key 2334433, 75 entries) holds a soldier camp: English “Soldier Lionfish”, French “Poisson armée” — the army fish — and Czech “Perutýn žoldnéř”, the mercenary. Next to it, the devil camp: English “Devil firefish”, Turkish “Şeytan aslan balığı”, Portuguese “Peixe-fogo Diabo”, Finnish “paholaissiipisimppu”. Then the lion camp: English “Lionfish”, Italian “Pesce leone”, Spanish “Pez león”, Greek “Λιονταρόψαρο”, Arabic “سمك الأسد الشائع”. And the fire camp, where the German name belongs: “Rotfeuerfisch” (red firefish) and “Indischer Rotfeuerfisch”, Hungarian “közönséges tűzhal”, Slovenian “rdečemorska plamenka” — the flame from the Red Sea.
💣 And now the man who never existed. The same GBIF list carries “Miles’ firefish” four times (Catalogue of Life, Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species, ITIS, TAXREF), plus “Mile’s Fire Fish” from the IUCN Red List — with an apostrophe, as the possessive of a person. According to ETYFish, though, *miles* is not a personal name but the Latin word for soldier. Anyone reading “Miles’ firefish” is reading a name built on a misunderstanding — in the very lists that elsewhere translate the soldier correctly.
💣 Three more name traps, each checked against the GBIF source fields. French “Poisson Scorpion” and Italian “Pesce scorpione” appear in the lionfish lists — but “scorpionfish” is also the usual name of the Scorpaena species, which have their own article in this series. They are related, same family, but not the same fish. “Lionfish”, “Pez león” and “Poisson armée” also appear in the list of the red lionfish (*Pterois volitans*, GBIF 2334438) — the twin that conquered the Caribbean. And for Croatian, Albanian, Norwegian, Swedish and Japanese, the *miles* list carries no name at all; according to GBIF, the Japanese ハナミノカサゴ belongs to *P. volitans*. That is why this article keeps the scientific name in the title in those languages.
From the Red Sea to the Mediterranean
The arrival is documented by MedMIS, the IUCN information system on invasive species in the Mediterranean. It states: “The first Mediterranean specimen of lionfish was collected from Haifa Bay, Israel in 1991.” Twenty years later, according to MedMIS, came northern Lebanon (2012), Cyprus (2013), İskenderun Bay (2014) and the Kaş-Kekova marine protected area in Turkey, plus reports from Tunisia, Sicily and Greece. The most likely pathway is the Suez Canal — the fish is common in the Red Sea, and according to MedMIS genetic studies (Bariche and colleagues, 2017) have confirmed this.
⚠️ A contradiction within the source itself, named openly: MedMIS writes that the twin *P. volitans* has not been recorded until now in the Mediterranean — yet its own reading list includes a 2018 paper titled “New record of the red lionfish, *Pterois volitans*, in the Northeastern Mediterranean Sea”. This article does not resolve that. It notes: the lionfish being talked about in the Mediterranean is, according to MedMIS, *P. miles*, and MedMIS says the two species are almost indistinguishable by appearance.
What the expert sources say about it
The key facts, each with its source. FishBase: marine, reef-associated, 0 to 85 metres; Indian Ocean from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to South Africa and Sumatra, plus the Atlantic and the eastern Mediterranean; up to 43 centimetres and 787.8 grams; reddish to tan or grey with many thin dark bars; 13 dorsal spines. According to FishBase, adults live in coastal waters over muddy ground. IUCN status “Least Concern”, assessed on 20 June 2017 — not threatened in its native range. MedMIS gives different figures for the Mediterranean: up to 35 centimetres, found at 0 to 80 metres (“some sources refer to a greater depth”), at breakwaters, wrecks, boulders, seagrass, coralligenous ground, rock and sand. ⚠️ The sources disagree on length, depth and bottom type — this article does not smooth that over.
MedMIS describes its behaviour like this: an “active ambush predator” that often uses its spread pectoral fins to corner its prey. Juveniles eat mostly invertebrates, larger fish increasingly eat fish. It is thought to be nocturnal, retreating into crevices and under ledges by day, yet it is also seen moving about in daylight, alone and in small groups — and it is site-faithful: once an adult has found suitable habitat, it tends to stay. The experts’ concern: where it has arrived, according to MedMIS it can reduce the recruitment of native juvenile fish and compete with groupers for food.
The spines: what MedMIS says
FishBase lists it as “Venomous” and writes: “Fin spines highly venomous, may cause human death.” MedMIS counts 18 venomous spines: 13 long ones in the dorsal fin, one in each pelvic fin and three at the front of the anal fin. The large pectoral fins and the tail fin carry no venomous spines. According to MedMIS, stings are “very rarely fatal” unless a person is allergic, but very painful, causing numbness, swelling and even temporary paralysis. MedMIS recommends immersing the wound in hot water for 30 to 90 minutes and seeking medical attention. ⚠️ The difference between the two sources belongs here: FishBase warns of possible death, MedMIS calls deaths very rare. This article is not medical advice — after a sting, what counts is a doctor, not a blog.
Important for the table: according to MedMIS, “the flesh of a lionfish is not venomous or poisonous” — the venom is only in the spines. In the Caribbean and the US it is eaten.
What that means on the water
- The experts want it caught. For the Mediterranean, MedMIS explicitly recommends removing new populations early — by protected-area staff and recreational divers, “hand-held nets, speared or caught on hook and line”, so hook and line included — and promoting harvesting by fishing communities. It is the rare case where the catch itself helps the sea. None of the sources read here say which method catches it best; this article promises none.
- Look for structure. Wrecks, breakwaters, boulders, crevices: that is where MedMIS describes it, and it stays faithful to its spot. If you have seen one somewhere once, you will probably find it there again.
- Gloves first, then scissors. MedMIS advises thick gloves and carefully cutting off the venomous spines with scissors before handling the fish further. Never grab it bare-handed, never hold it by the back — 13 of the 18 spines are there.
- A dead fish still stings. The spines stay dangerous after the fish has died — in the cool box, on deck, while gutting.
- No native look-alike. According to MedMIS, there is no similar native species in the Mediterranean — striped like a zebra, with fan fins and tentacles above the eyes. This article is still not an identification key.
- Report your sighting. MedMIS is a reporting system and names awareness as the first step against the spread. Where a lionfish turns up outside the known areas, a report to the responsible authority is worth more than a photo in a group chat.
- Check the rules yourself. This article deliberately gives no regulations on catching, spearfishing or protected areas — they differ by country, and marine protected areas have their own rules. The responsible authority is what counts; this is not legal advice.
The lionfish is the predator where everything is reversed: the catch is wanted, the danger is not in the mouth but on the back, and its name does not honour a discoverer but a soldier. StrikeAhead reads conditions and depth and learns from your catches; the app tells you when it is worth it, and StrikeAhead Pathfinder tells you who to head out with on unfamiliar water — curated, personally vetted, with verified catches instead of promo photos.