Participants can remove Invasive Lionfish from April to June 2023 for entry into cash raffles & final cash prizes and donate the fish to REEF's Education & Outreach Programs
REEF Campus, Key Largo, FL 9AM-5PM Monday-Friday each week
Last month, 14 teams of scuba divers took to the water and collected 1,527 invasive lionfish during the 15th annual REEF Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Festival. Teams fished from sunrise to sunset on Friday, Aug. 16 and Saturday, Aug. 17. On Saturday evening, derby participants and the public gathered at Florida Keys Brewing Company for Invaders on Tap, a lionfish awareness celebration and social with live music, educational activities and games, and lionfish tastings. The weekend concluded on Sunday, Aug.
During last month's REEF Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Festival, twenty teams fished from sunrise to sunset for two days, and ultimately collected 1,215 invasive lionfish. The event concluded on Sunday, Sept. 12 at Postcard Inn Resort & Marina in Islamorada, with an outdoor festival featuring lionfish tastings, cooking and dissection demos, games, interactive booths, and live music.
Last weekend, 13 teams of scuba divers took to the water and collected 1,618 invasive lionfish during the 2025 REEF Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Arts Festival. Teams fished from sunrise to sunset on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26. The derby weekend concluded on Sunday, April 27 at the REEF Campus in Key Largo, with a festival celebrating the intersection of art, science, and marine conservation. The festival included lionfish scoring, cooking and dissection demos, plus numerous educational activities, games, and vendor booths.
Divers removed 312 invasive lionfish from Florida Keys waters during the final 2011 Florida Keys Lionfish Derby event last Saturday, Nov. 5. The latest results brought the total number of lionfish removed for the year during three Florida Keys lionfish roundups to 1,518 lionfish.
REEF’s 2019 Lionfish Derby Series ended on Sunday, Sept. 15 with the 10th Annual Upper Keys Lionfish Derby and Festival, hosted by Postcard Inn Beach Resort & Marina. Throughout the weekend, 28 derby competitors scoured the reefs and brought in a total of 1,263 lionfish, a new record for REEF Lionfish Derbies in the Florida Keys. Nine teams competed for most, largest, and smallest lionfish in this year’s Upper Keys Derby, vying for more than $4,400 in cash and prizes.
Eighteen teams of scuba divers took to the water and collected 919 invasive lionfish during the 2022 REEF Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Festival. Teams fished from sunrise to sunset on Friday, Sept. 9 and Saturday, Sept. 10. The event concluded on Sunday, Sept. 11 at Postcard Inn Resort & Marina in Islamorada, with an outdoor festival featuring lionfish tastings, cooking and dissection demos, games, interactive booths, and live music. More than 400 people attended the event, along with over 20 partner organizations who hosted booths.
Third Annual Palm Beach County Lionfish Derby set for August 17
Teams will compete for over $3,500 for removing the invasive species
By Keri Kenning, REEF Communications Manager
On June 22, SCUBA divers, marine conservation enthusiasts, and foodies gathered at Piccolo Ristorante in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to attend the second annual Lionfish Tasting Dinner. During the event, patrons learned about effects of the lionfish invasion while sampling the tasty invader’s light, white meat. At the end of the evening, DiveBar, one of the night’s sponsors, presented REEF with a check for $1,500 to support our Invasive Lionfish Program.
Approximately 100 divers collected 534 Indo-Pacific red lionfish during the first tournament dedicated to reducing the population of the invasive species in the Florida Keys waters. The September 11 tournament in Key Largo, organized by REEF and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is the first of three Keys-based lionfish roundups. The event attracted 27 teams that competed for cash and prizes to collect the most, largest and smallest lionfish. The winning team captured 111 lionfish during the single day event.
