Harvesting lionfish commercially isn't as good an idea as it may appear to be at first glance. There are major drawbacks. First, the issue of protecting coral reefs. Unfortunately, the methods of harvesting lionfish commercially are not very selective, meaning that many other types of fish get caught in the process, the harvesting methods cannot separate out lionfish from other fish. Now, the Atlantic coral reefs are home to a great number of rare fish species. Harvesting lionfish would mean that many other fish would be accidentally caught too, including the rare species. This could put the populations of many fish species that live in the reef in danger, and that might be a greater ecological problem than the problems caused by lionfish. Second, bringing lionfish to the commercial fish market and creating consumer demand for lionfish might have some negative consequences. You see, once consumer demand for lionfish is created, some enterprising people might try to supply the market by building so called Fish farms, places where they will breed lionfish to sell later on, raising lionfish in fish farms might create a problem. The lionfish can escape from the farms and spread to the surrounding habitats. And remember, we don't want to give the lionfish a chance to spread any more than it already has. Third lionfish meat doesn't always contain just healthy nutrients. Lionfish occasionally consume a certain species of microbe, a microscopic organism. The problem is that this microbe produces a toxin, a poisonous chemical. When the lionfish eat the microbe, the toxin accumulates in their bodies. Eating a fish that contains the toxin causes symptoms like vomiting, aches or numbness, not all lionfish contain this toxin, but some do so, unless all lionfish are tested for the toxin before being sold. Eating lionfish could be unsafe.