Photos from the World’s Biggest Lionfish Derby

By Adam Green On May 29, 2024

ON ANY GIVEN weekend this summer, there was a lionfish derby underway somewhere in Florida. As the population of this invasive species has exploded in recent years, so too has interest in targeting the destructive critters. Tournaments begin in late winter and stretch into the fall, with cash and other prizes incentivizing already motivated spearfishermen to remove as many lionfish as they can from vulnerable coral reefs in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. (The species is notorious for its voracious appetite: A single lionfish residing on a reef can reduce native reef fish recruitment by as much as 79 percent.)

The world’s largest lionfish derby is the Emerald Coast Open, held in Destin, Florida, in mid-May. This year our photographer tagged along with one of the participating teams, captained by spearfisherman Tim Robinson. At 62, Robinson is a scuba instructor and the owner of ZooKeeper, which makes a sort of underwater creel for safely storing lionfish during dives and sponsors lionfish derbies across the state.

“This is not a problem we’re going to eradicate. Lionfish multiply worse than rabbits,” says Robinson. “A female lionfish lays between 15,000 to 30,000 eggs every four to seven days, year-round. To put that into perspective, [participants] removed roughly 25,000 lionfish during this two-day derby, and a little more than 5,000 in the pre-derby that started in February. And that’s basically the number of eggs that one female lionfish lays once a week.”

“This is not a problem that we’re going to eradicate. Lionfish multiply worse than rabbits.”

—Tim Robinson

Not all the eggs in a clutch survive, of course, but Robinson’s math problem illustrates the sheer scale of the lionfish invasion. While he enjoys the larger mission of lionfish management, Robinson spends his weekend spearfishing for another reason.

“The truth is that we love it. We love spearing lionfish,” says Robinson. “It’s the thrill of the hunt. They’re not just out swimming around freely. In most cases, you have to hunt for them. It’s fun to come up with a dozen lionfish or a full ZooKeeper. I’ve had days when I couldn’t get any more lionfish in my ZooKeeper. It’s just a great feeling. So yes, we want to be part of the cause [to reduce lionfish] and do our part. But we really, truly love it. It’s just in our blood.”

The author’s son, Rob Robinson, makes a standard back roll off the boat into the water. During the derby Robinson’s team dove in pairs, using the buddy system for safety and keeping two divers in the boat for mandatory surface time. This allows divers to “off gas,” or exhale excess nitrogen. Rayna O’Nan

Two lionfish divers on a wreck. — Cody spots a lionfish before his ZooKeeper even hits the ocean floor. The team didn’t find many lionfish at this wreck, and later they chatted with a team who had fished it before they arrived. Rayna O’Nan

A scuba diver searches for lionfish hiding behind a rock. — A lionfish conceals itself behind a rock as Tyler Bourgoine hunts nearby. Although the fish are native to the Indian Ocean, they blend in easily with Florida’s natural and artificial reefs. A single lionfish sports 18 venomous spines: 13 along its backbone, three near the anal fin, and one on each side. Robinson says getting poked by any one of them is “about 10 times worse than a bee sting.” Divers who have been stung should return to the surface and try to break down the venom by applying a heat pack; Robinson keeps these handy in his dive kit. Rayna O’Nan

A spearfisherman prepares to shoot a lionfish. — “We’re trying to protect the reef from the lionfish,” says Robinson, who never wants his spear to pass through a fish and strike a reef. Careful shot placement is key. “You basically swim right up to a lionfish. You can actually touch them with your spear and maneuver them around a little bit. Because they don’t have a predator [here], they’re not afraid of you. As a general rule, they’ll let you come right up to them and put the spear within a couple inches before you shoot them.” Rayna O’Nan

Two divers spear lionfish off a reef in Florida. — Tyler (left) and Cody close in on a trio of lionfish. Although most lionfish are unfazed by divers swimming up to them, lionfish that have been shot at before are skittish. The invasive critters hide beneath ledges or in holes in the reef, making a bright dive light essential for successful hunting. “They can blend in with whatever they’re around,” says Robinson, who offers spearfishing education classes for divers. “I always say to think like a lionfish. Like if I were a lionfish, where would I be? Typically that’s under a ledge. They actually invert themselves and go belly up underneath one. Half the fish I shoot are upside down.” Rayna O’Nan

Two divers fistbumb during a lionfish derby. — Cody (right) fist-bumps his dad, who just speared a big lionfish. The Robinsons are hunting with homemade sling spears (also known as Hawaiian spears), which are about 3 feet long and tipped with three to four prongs. They’re often barbed to prevent losing fish. Some divers put up to seven prongs on their spears, though the Robinsons consider this overkill. Rayna O’Nan

A spearfisherman loads a lionfish into a Zookeeper containment device. — Rob stuffs a lionfish into his ZooKeeper. All lionfish divers use some sort of containment device for a few reasons. Spearing a lionfish doesn’t usually kill it, so divers must trap them somehow. It also protects against venomous stings and provides a handy carrying case for toting fish back for weigh-in and, eventually, eating. Rayna O’Nan

An old tank makes an artificial reef. — Cody (top) and his father check an old tank. Lionfish are nocturnal and primarily hunt at night, but they’re also opportunistic predators. “They eat to eat, not necessarily because they’re hungry,” says Tim Robinson. “They eat because there’s something in front of them. They’re not selective. As long as it will fit in their mouth, they’ll eat it. We often catch them with their bellies so bloated, because the bellies will expand up to 30 times to accommodate what they’re eating.” Rayna O’Nan

A lionfish spearfisherman swims to the surface. — Keeping tabs on his dive computer, Cody swims to the surface after a dive. Rayna O’Nan

A diver surfaces after spearfishing. — Surfacing with fresh lionfish hauls. The Robinsons hired a charter captain who was willing to take them scouting ahead of the derby, plus drive them around for two dawn-til-dusk days on the water during the competition. Rayna O’Nan

A diver hands up a tube full of lionfish. — Handing off a ZooKeeper stuffed with lionfish. Rayna O’Nan

Emptying a tube of lionfish into a cooler. — Rob empties a load of lionfish into the boat cooler. The team kept the fish on ice all day before returning to the weigh-in. Rayna O’Nan

A guy in a baseball cap holds up two lionfish. — Rob holds up two of the team’s bigger lionfish from the first day of the derby. Rayna O’Nan

The Zookeeper team from the Destin lionfish derby. — The ZooKeeper team poses for a quick group photo. From right, front: Tim Robinson, Tyler Bourgoine, Rob Robinson, and Cody Robinson. Their dive master and charter captain stand behind them. Rayna O’Nan

Six orange buckets of lionfish. — Buckets of lionfish back at the dock. A total of 24,699 lionfish were removed by 144 participants at the Emerald Coast Open in Destin. The fish were cleaned and taken home, given away, or served by Destin restaurants. Rayna O’Nan

A woman measures the length of a lionfish. — Each lionfish submitted for the derby was carefully measured, with prizes awarded for most lionfish removed, as well as the largest and smallest fish taken. The largest measured nearly 18 inches long. Rayna O’Nan

The team that won the Emerald Coast Open lionfish tournament. — Deep Water Mafia I won the top prize of $10,000 for spearing the most lionfish: 2,898 fish in two days. After Robinson and his team finished in 12th place in the 2022 tournament with 305 fish, his sons were determined to win this year’s tournament—not for the prize money, which Robinson, as a sponsor, declines, but for the challenge. The ZooKeeper team buckled down and speared 509 fish this year … and still came in 12th. Robinson chalks that up not to an increase in competition among participants but to the exploding lionfish population. Rayna O’Nan

This story first ran on July 5, 2023.

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