Shortly after announcing the removal of more than 100,000 lionfish from Florida waters, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), at the Nov. 17 meeting in St. Petersburg, presented a custom-made, mounted metal lionfish trophy to the FWC’s first-ever Lionfish King, David Garrett.Garrett, of Volusia County, achieved the honor after removing a total of 3,324 lionfish during the 4.5-month long Lionfish Challenge.
“Every lionfish removed is a benefit to the native fish and ecosystem,” said Garrett, a Professional Association of Diving Instructors scuba instructor and retired Army major who also sells a lot of his catch commercially and runs a nonprofit lionfish removal organization. He will be featured on the cover of the January 2017 Saltwater Regulations Publication and will also receive a lifetime saltwater fishing license for his efforts.
Of the 111,000 lionfish reported removed since May, 16,609 were from the Lionfish Challenge program alone.
The Lionfish Challenge rewarded divers who removed 50 or more lionfish with incentives including a commemorative coin; a T-shirt; an additional spiny lobster per person, per day during the 2016 two-day sport season; and entry into a raffle where they had the chance to win prizes such as Neritic polespears, Zookeeper lionfish containment units, fuel cards, fishing licenses and dive tank refills.
To learn more about how to participate in these and other programs, or to see who participated in the Lionfish Challenge, visit MyFWC.com/Lionfish.