THE SMITHSONIAN Tropical Research Institute in Panama has issued a warning about the proliferation of  the voracious carnivore cobia fish on the Pacific coast of Colombia and Panama, threatening other  species.

Experts say that the cobia could have far-reaching effects on fisheries and marine ecology in the Eastern Pacific.

They say  that the fish lives in all oceans of the world, except in the central and eastern Pacific, but, in August last year , a large number of juvenile fish escaped from cages in the sea off Ecuador.

Ross Robertson Smithsonian scientist, Ross Robertson it indicates that "the chaos caused by the invasion of lionfish in the Indo-Pacific (2014) through the Caribbean offers a compelling lesson about the strong adverse effects  that foreign marine fish may have on the ecosystems unknown to them. "

The  fish, brown on top and white below, with a strip of dark brown on the sides. They reach a maximum length of two meters and a maximum weight of 78 kilograms (172 pounds).

They feed on crustaceans (crabs) in particular,  squid and fish.