Florida Keys Divers Can Help Take a Bite Out of Lionfish

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

Lionfish Challenge

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

4 Florida Keys Culinary Delights – Stone Crab – Pink Shrimp – Lionfish – Key Lime Pie

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

Whopping 8,089 at Lionfish Removal off Pensacola

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

FWC Approves 2-part Lionfish removal effort for 2016

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

Traps for Invasive Lionfish on the Horizon

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

Florida Keys Anglers Air Their Concerns to the FWC

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

Lionfish – Beautiful – Destructive – Now Resorting to Cannibalism

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

Shooting lionfish and missing The Shot

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