MARZAMEMI: The fish in Alfonso Barone’s net are hauled aboard from Sicily half-eaten, ravaged by bearded fireworms, a voracious predator that thrives in the ever-warming Mediterranean.
The centipede-like creatures, about 15 to 30 centimeters (6-12 inches) long, eat everything from coral to dying or dead catch in fishing nets – and rising sea temperatures caused by climate change are drastically increasing their numbers.
Barone pulls a long, wriggling red worm off a headless mackerel in his boat. Its poisonous white bristles come loose at the slightest touch and the 34-year-old says he has been stung several times, once even in the eye.
Fish are attacked as soon as they are caught in the net.
“They’ll eat the head, the whole body, they’ll gut it,” Barone said as he pulled up a mutilated bream while fishing off the village of Marzamemi on the southeastern tip of Sicily.
Fireworms are native to the Mediterranean, but they used to be fewer and only seen off Sicily in the summer.
“With global warming, the waters are getting warmer and it’s becoming an ideal habitat for them and their numbers year after year … year round,” said Barone, who has been fishing since he was a kid.
Nibbled fish can’t be sold, so fishermen are shortening the time their nets are down in an attempt to stop the feeding frenzy – resulting in a smaller catch, whose pieces are equally decorated with brown, green or red worms.
“They used to eat around 30 percent of the catch … Now it’s up to 70 percent,” Barone said.
Worms also migrate north. Francesco Tiralongo, a zoologist who leads the University of Catania’s fireworm project, has seen cases in Calabria, southern Italy.
The bearded monkfish “is an opportunistic species that behaves both as a predator and as a scavenger” and “there are impressive numbers … in very shallow waters,” Tiralongo told AFP.
At Marzamemi beach, many nervous bathers put on masks or water shoes before diving.
Fabiana Davanzo, a 56-year-old tourist from Milan, said she refused to “let it spoil my holiday, but I always go in with a mask to see the bottom of the sea”.
Carefully dipping his toes into the water, holidaymaker Salvatore Lazzaro, 51, said he had been stung by an unknown creature the previous day but braved the water again under the steaming sun.
Frightened swimmers and frustrated anglers aren’t the only problem.
“Climate warming is causing several changes in the Mediterranean that are likely to worsen in the coming years,” says Federico Betti, an expert on invasive species at the University of Genoa.
The average temperature in the Mediterranean has increased by about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past 40 years, he said.
Warmer seas mean less seasonal variation in species, damage to deep-sea communities and loss of habitat, leading to a more homogenous environment unable to support rich and diverse ecosystems.
The heat can also trigger mass die-offs, in which huge numbers of certain species die, Betti said.
Other species are enjoying it: The Mediterranean has seen an increase in tropical non-native species that are “causing profound changes in marine ecosystems,” Tiralongo said.
These include the blue crab, which is destroying shellfish production in the Po Delta in northern Italy.
Crabs have no natural predators, although the Italians are trying to turn them into a resource by harvesting them for food.
But a bearded spaghetti fireworm is out of the question. And while more research needs to be done into possible solutions, Tiralongo has already made a disturbing discovery.
“You can’t kill a glow by cutting it in half, it has excellent regenerative powers,” he said. “When you cut it in two, not only does the head part regenerate the back half, but the back half can regenerate the head in 22 days.”
