Thanks to the recent efforts of four local divers, there are several hundred less invasive lionfish wreaking havoc on Florida Keys reefs. Team Forever Young, consisting of Tony Young, Jason Vogan, Jeff Tharp, and Luke Rankin, collected 426 invasive lionfish while participating in the 2022 Earth Day “Locals” Lionfish Derby, hosted by Reef Environmental Education … Read more
The Florida Sport Spiny Lobster mini-season last Wednesday and Thursday is over. Regular spiny lobster season starts Aug. 6 and runs through March 31. FWC plans to ramp up its efforts to combat poaching and trap robbing this season. The FWC plans to patrol the nearshore waters in a boat with a hydraulic trap puller and … Read more
The Lionfish Challenge rewards lionfish harvesters withs for lionfish removals. Those with the most lionfish will be crowned the Recreational Lionfish King/Queen and the Commercial Champion.
Florida Keys Divers can help preserve the Florida Keys’ native reef fish populations during the fun, socially distanced Reef Environmental Education Foundation 2020 Lionfish Derby. Scheduled Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 10-13, the derby challenges participants to capture and remove as many non-native lionfish as possible from Keys waters. This year, COVID-19 restrictions have forced organizers … Read more
23,451 Invasive Lionfish Removed!Congratulations to this year’s Lionfish Challenge top prize winners:• Most lionfish removed recreational category:Ken Ayers, Lionfish King = 1,194 removed• Most lionfish removed commercial category:Joshua Livingston = 3,192.8 lbs. removed• Largest lionfish category:Ron Surrency, Duval County, 17.04 inches (433 mm)• Smallest lionfish category:Nikkie Cox, Franklin County, 1.45 inches (37 mm) How to … Read more
What do you do with an invasive fish, covered from head to fin with venomous spines as sharp as hypodermic needles; a fish that can’t be caught with a rod or in a trawling net as it multiplies rapidly, deep in our oceans, flummoxing fishermen and scientists alike? Lionfish. Note: Venomous is not the same as … Read more
The indigenous cuisine of the 125-mile-long Florida Keys island chain is a rich melting pot of fresh boat-to-table seafood enhanced with the fresh tropical flavors of lime, coconut, mango and papaya. Four Florida Keys Culinary Delights can be considered signature treats that are best savored only in the Keys: stone crab, pink shrimp, lionfish and Key … Read more
Successful is too small of a word to describe the second annual Lionfish Removal and Awareness Day Festival May 14-15. In Pensacola alone, 8,089 lionfish were removed in only two days at the Gulf Coast Lionfish Coalition Tournament. More than 7,000 people (more than double last year’s numbers) attended the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation … Read more
At its April 13 meeting in Jupiter, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approved a two-part lionfish removal plan to further encourage removals of the invasive species in 2016. Lionfish have a potential negative impact on native wildlife and habitat and the FWC encourages divers and anglers to remove them from Florida waters … Read more
The fight to control the invasive lionfish is about to get real if Ft. Pierce divers Bob and Maria Hickerson have anything to say about it. Hickerson and his wife — who run a series of highly successful lionfish derbies along Florida’s East Coast — also manufacture a popular line of lionfish harvesting gear, including … Read more
Filleting Lionfish
Florida Keys [anglers] residents spoke out on dolphin fish harvests, lobster bully-netting, lionfish problems and grouper seasons when meeting with state fishery managers last summer. Wednesday in Panama City Beach, board members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will consider whether to act on any of the concerns gathered at a statewide series … Read more
The device is called the Zoo-Keeper Lionfish Containment Unit, and word of mouth has turned it into a must-have Lionfish capture device for many recreational divers in the Caribbean and Florida. Sarasota entrepreneur Allie ElHage didn’t know anything about the lionfish until late 2011. Four years later, after designing a device that divers use to … Read more
(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto) Curt Clawson, R-Bonita Springs, has introduced a bill that would ban importing all 11 lionfish species, including the nine that have not been found in U.S. waters. The bill would not interfere with the selling of fish fillets, which encourages to help eliminate the fish in Florida waters. The bill was introduced last … Read more
As Eric Billips reaches the bottom of the reef, 90 feet down, he spots a cloud of minnows around a coral head, and as expected, finds half a dozen lionfish lurking nearby. They’re beautiful, hovering like little resplendent flowers. But they’re dangerous, housing 18 venomous spines that repel predators. Billips is able to spear three … Read more
This large Burmese python, weighing 162 pounds and more than 15 feet long at the time of its capture in 2009, was caught alive in Everglades National Park and was found to have eaten an American alligator that measured about 6 feet in length. University of Florida researchers in the photo: Michael Rochford is holding … Read more
Efforts to tame Florida’s invasive lionfish haven’t worked. Now these venomous fish are eating each other. Though it probably won’t reduce their numbers substantially. Watch divers and researchers fight the invasive lionfish in Florida’s coastal waters. By Katie Pyzyk, National Geographic PUBLISHED JULY 23, 2015 CONCH KEY, Florida—Fisherman Gary Nichols, who has been finding lionfish … Read more
Lionfish add a new wrinkle in rules for the 2015 lobster mini-season Wednesday and Thursday. In the one significant change to traditional lobster rules for the sport season, divers who harvest 10 lionfish [you don’t have to stop at 10!] will be allowed to take one — and only one — extra lobster per day. … Read more
The lionfish is a highly-destructive non-native species in the Gulf of Mexico, which has few natural predators except, apparently, other lionfish. Source: Lionfish control efforts getting a boost from other lionfish | AL.com
Non-native lionfish are a threat to Florida’s marine environment, so I recently went diving in the Keys to kill a few. (Photo: Kevin Lollar/ The News-Press) Most photographers and videographers know what it’s like to miss The Shot. Let’s say you’re out in a swamp shooting photos or video of wading birds and your camera … Read more