The middle of May was a bad time to be a lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico. By the time the fourth annual Lionfish Removal and Awareness weekend (May 19-20) was over, 15,383 of them were out of the water, cooking on grills, smoking in smokers and en route to seafood stores and restaurants.

A bundle of tournaments and related landside festivities drew divers to Pensacola and other Florida panhandle ports for the annual event. It’s organized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) Commission and is accumulating an impressive roster of sponsors that’s expanding the event’s promotional capacity.

If the Florida Legislature ever considers designating an official state menace, the lionfish, an invader from Asia, has a good chance to be chosen. Since the early 1990s it has wrought misery on offshore reefs, devouring the forage and scaring off native snapper, grouper, etc. with its venomous spines.

The largest tournament, billed as the World Lionfish Championship, accounted for 9,606 specimens brought to the Perdido Key docks just this side of the Alabama border. That event was won by Team Florida Man, home-ported at Destin. Alex Fogg, Josh Livingston, Joe Livingston and John McCann boated 2,403 fish.

Team Hang On, based at Apalachicola, took second place with 1,115 fish. The catchers were Grayson Shepard, Rachel Bowman, Nikkie Cox and Meaghan Faletti.

Team Strike Lions from Pensacola was third with 1,045 fish taken by Josh Faulkner, Marc Kramer, Shea Lowe and Barry Shively.

A Pensacola pre-tournament event associated with the world championship accounted for 4,056. The Lion Tamer Tournament at Panama City Beach brought in 1,490. The Florida Skin Divers Assn. Lionfish Calcutta at St. Pete took 231.

Seven lionfish derbies are scheduled in June — two of them at Fort Pierce, two at Miami and one each at Key West, Mexico Beach and Sarasota. July events are planned at Fort Lauderdale and Sarasota.
For details and the schedule through October, see here: http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/lionfish/events.