It hoovers the reef like a vacuum leaving no baby fish behind.

Sharks and eels cower at its sight.

No bigger then a rugby ball with orange and white spines and a graceful glide, the lionfish, one of the most unlikely but fiercest predators around, could empty Bermuda's waters.

That is, unless Chris Flook, the Aquarium Collector has anything to do about it.

After spending last November in the Bahamas, which has been inundated by these incredible predators, Mr. Flook began working hard to prevent the same happening in Bermuda.

Now he is part of a coordinated effort between the Government, Conservation Services and Environment Protection to keep the lionfish in check.

It is something that needs to start now, according to Mr. Flook, before the summer months, when the fish will be spawning.

He said: "The females can produce 30,000 eggs and within a month of hatching they are ready to breed. More of these juveniles will survive than other fish because they have no known predators.

"What saves us, though is we only have 200 square miles of reef to monitor, the Bahamas have thousands of miles. And everybody has boats here and are willing to help."

Mr. Flook estimates that almost 40 lionfish have been caught in Bermuda's waters to date, but as an avid diver he has noticed the destruction that has already happened to the reef.

He said: "I was swimming around the reef and noticed there were hardly any fish around. Maybe one grunt here or there, but then I got to the top of the reef and sitting there were four lionfish."

These fish will stop at nothing and will eat anything. While they are fairly sedentary fish, they are proactive about their food and will go after their prey.

If two were left in Bailey's Bay for two weeks they would completely wipe-out the juvenile fish that use the sea grass area to grow.

But these are also hearty fish that do well in aquariums, which is how the lionfish which is originally from the Philippines, ended up in the Atlantic.

Pet shops in Florida imported the fish and it is believed that the new owners may have released them into the waters there.

The lionfish have been seen as far south as the Turks and Caicos and as far east as Bermuda, but the Bahamas with it close vicinity with Florida and warm waters all year round has had the worst of it.

In despair, the Bahamas has had to introduce a culling programme, which has given anyone the right to catch and kill the lionfish.

But Mr. Flook stressed this week that the programme in Bermuda would not be a free-for-all and would be closely monitored to also help with research into why the fish are here.

He said: "We have not been overwhelmed yet. This would be a preventative programme. We hope to run a course, which would teach those interested how to do it and how to be safe.

"If we can stop them now, Bermuda has the chance to be the ideal diving gem in the Atlantic in the next few years."

Until the course and licensing begins, however, Mr. Flook asked that the public help them track these animals, by calling them at: 293-4464 ext. 820 or by emailing them at: lionfish@gov.bm.