Fishing guide Mike Makowski removed this lionfish from a shallow reef in Key Largo's John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on Tuesday. Makowski said he saw invasive lionfish 'on every spot I dove.'
"There are hotspots out there where you can easily catch over a dozen lionfish in a day," said Alecia Adamson, field operations director for the Reef Environmental Education Foundation in Key Largo.
"Lionfish are everywhere out there now," said Sally Billiter from Tilden's Dive Center in Marathon. "On the bayside, at the reef, just everywhere."
Since the first sighting of the invasive lionfish in Keys waters in January 2009, REEF has logged more than 500 sightings and recorded 250 captures of the fish, which are native to the Pacific but harmful to the Keys.
The lionfish derbies are planned Sept. 11 in Key Largo, Oct. 16 in Marathon and Nov. 13 in Key West.
Lionfish sport an array of venomous spines that protect them from predator fish. In South Florida waters, the fast-breeding lionfish apparently have no natural predators.
That leaves it to humans to protect native fish populations from the ravenous lionfish, which are known to devour juvenile snapper, grouper and shrimp, said acting marine sanctuary Superintendent Sean Morton.
"Eating lionfish is a conservation activity," Morton said. "We are its only known predator in the Atlantic. Through dedicated diver-based removal efforts and consumption of lionfish as a food source, we can control its establishment."
The lionfish derbies will include workshops on how to capture and handle a lionfish to avoid a painful wound from its spines.
For a team entry of $100, four-member dive teams will receive capture training and puncture-proof gloves. An awards banquet will feature a tasting of cooked lionfish.
Experts accurately predicted that the Keys' summer dive season would see a surge in lionfish reports.
"I've seen three just this week," Blue Water Divers co-owner Christi Dimmick said Thursday from Key Largo. "Two pretty big ones were hanging out together at French Ledge, and another one was at the Benwood wreck."
"It looks like they are becoming more prevalent," Ann Stadler of Key Largo's Island Ventures said. "I don't get out of the shop that often but I saw one the other day. My husband saw two more on the same dive, between the Benwood and French Reef."
Several Keys dive centers and marine labs have agreed to store captured lionfish until they are collected by researchers, who examine the fish's diet and DNA for clues to its origin.
"We put them in little plastic bags and put them in our freezer," Billiter said. "At one point, our freezer was stinking of fish because there were so many of them."
On two recent dives near the Channel 2 and Channel 5 bridges near Islamorada, two REEF staffers collected 34 lionfish, Adamson said. "And they were pretty quick dives," she added.
For information on the lionfish derbies, go to www.reef.org/lionfish.
Lionfish can be taken in areas open to fishing at any time. Captured lionfish taken to the following locations will be stored for use by researchers:
- In Key Largo, Silent World Dive center, Quiescence Diving, Sea Dwellers, Horizon Divers and REEF headquarters.
- In Islamorada/Tavernier, Conch Republic Divers, the Florida Keys Dive Center and Key Dives.
- In the Middle Keys, Tilden's Dive Center.
- In the Lower Keys, Looe Key Dive Center and Mote Marine Lab.
- In Key West, Dive Key West and the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center.
