Last month, REEF kicked off our 2018 Lionfish Derby series at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami. Four teams competed on June 9 and 10 to bring in a total of 309 fish. The largest lionfish caught was 411mm (just over 16 inches) and the smallest was 112mm (about 4.5 inches.) We have two more derbies coming up this month - in Sarasota at Mote Marine Lab and Aquarium on July 6 - 8, and in Ft. Lauderdale at 15th St. Fisheries on July 13 - 14, and a few more later this summer and fall.
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Register for REEF's Marathon Lionfish Collecting & Handling Workshop
Wednesday, September 7 - Tilden's Scuba Center (Isla Bella Resort), 4650 Overseas Hwy, Marathon, FL 33050
Images and text by Erin Spencer
Check out some of the photos from our third day on the Lionfish Control Study in Curacao! After a two tank dive in the morning (where we collected 176 lionfish), the team celebrated with a Ceviche Party at Kura Hulanda Lodge. The event was attended by trip participants, local lionfish enthusiasts, and Lodge visitors alike.
REEF is offering a series of free Lionfish Collection and Handling Workshops throughout south Florida and the Keys. Each workshop will include a classroom session covering the background of the invasion, lionfish biology, ecological impacts, current research, collecting and handling techniques, and other ways you can get involved. Attendees can obtain a permit to collect lionfish within the Sanctuary Preservation Areas (SPAs) in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary using hand nets only.
Join us for the second annual project to Curacao to document the establishment and consequences of invasive lionfish as part of REEF's ongoing effort to minimize the Indo-Pacific predator's impact on native fish populations. Participants will have an opportunity to be trained in lionfish collection and dissections of specimens to document prey. This unique research trip is led by REEF’s Director of Special Projects, Lad Akins and dive industry legend, Peter Hughes.
REEF is continuing our ground-breaking research and outreach on the lionfish invasion with projects in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The project is supported with funding from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Grant and the Buck Island REEF National Park and long-time supporters Henry Foundation, Oceans Foundation and Munson Foundation.
Learn how to safely conduct lionfish removals by attending a REEF Invasive Lionfish Collecting & Handling Workshop.
Workshops include a classroom portion that covers background on the invasion, lionfish biology, ecological impacts, current research, and collecting and handling techniques. After we wrap up the classroom portion of the workshop, we will head out to the water for a 2-tank dive to put our skills to work.
The Looe Key Lionfish Collecting & Handling Workshop is FULL! Click the button below to sign up for the waitlist.
Friday, April 28 - Looe Key Reef Resort, 27340 Overseas Hwy., Ramrod Key, FL 33042
REEF, in collaboration with the University of Virgin Islands and Buck Island National Monument, took a major step last week in a novel study to better understand lionfish movement and factors that may influence that movement. The study, focusing on a 2km area of patch and continuous reef in St Croix, used innovative underwater tagging techniques pioneered by REEF to surgically implant transmitters into invasive lionfish within an array of receivers, allowing the team to pinpoint movement of the fish over the next year.