Venomous lionfishes, Pterois sp.
, have been found living on the coast of North Carolina, far away from their natural habitat.
A number of theories are being bandied about as to how the lionfish, which are generally found in Indo Pacific waters, came to be living off North America. These range from suggestions that the fish may have escaped from a Florida fish farm, to their being introduced with ballast water in ships travelling to the area from the Far East.