Lionfish Challenge | Reef Rangers

Overview

Background. The Lionfish Challenge is a summer-long lionfish tournament open to participants from anywhere within the state of Florida! The tournament is completely free to enter and is open to participants of all ages. The goal of The Challenge is to encourage and reward recreational and commercial divers to remove lionfish from Florida waters. The Challenge is split into two divisions to cater to both commercial and recreational divers. In the recreational division, divers remove the tails from their lionfish harvests and submit those to participating checkpoints around the state for verification. Commercial harvesters submit copies of their trip tickets of commercial lionfish sales. Participants in each division compete with each other to harvest the most aggregate lionfish or most pounds of lionfish throughout the duration of the tournament. Each year, hundreds of participants compete for the title of Lionfish King or Queen or Commercial Champion. While there are huge grand prizes for winners, prizes are also awarded on a tiered basis to encourage harvests even for those who cannot compete to win. The Lionfish Challenge typically includes raffles prizes for diving and spearfishing equipment, Mini-Challenges, resource-based rewards, and MORE!

Rules and Instructions

Timeline May 20, 2022 through September 6, 2022 **The Challenge typically ends on Labor Day; we have decided to extend the tournament until the day AFTER Labor Day this year to accommodate those who may be diving that day Registration Participants must pre-register for the tournament at FWCReefRangers.com. You will be given a registration number upon successful completion- please keep this number for your records. Participants may only qualify for one category (recreational or commercial). -- Participants with an active Saltwater Products License and commercial lionfish sales within the last year must register for the commercial category. After registering, you may begin harvesting lionfish. How to Submit Your Catch Instructions for Commercial Divers: After harvesting your lionfish, sell them to a licensed wholesale dealer and get a copy of your trip ticket verifying the commercial sale. Contact us for a list of wholesale dealers currently purchasing lionfish. After obtaining your trip ticket, complete a Commercial Trip Ticket Submission -- Trip ticket submission is completed through an online form on our website (similar to the form you filled out when registering for the Challenge). -- The online form will ask you information about when and where your lionfish were harvested and will ask you to upload a copy of your trip ticket -- You may submit either a photo, scanned copy, or online screen grab of your trip ticket Things to note: Please complete an online submission form for each trip ticket Only lionfish sales with species code 460 will be accepted Lionfish sold with tails removed are NOT eligible for this competition. If we have reason to believe a participant is selling fish with tails previously removed, they will be disqualified from competing. Instructions for Recreational Divers: After harvesting your lionfish, remove tails leaving a bit of meat attached and place in a plastic sandwich bag(s) Label bag(s) with harvester name, phone number, date of harvest and number of tails Bring tails and a tail verification form to a local Checkpoint for verification of harvest -- The Checkpoint will count your tails, sign your verification form, and return the form to you. -- Checkpoints will keep the tails for our records. - -Checkpoint locations and verification forms can be found on our website: www.FWCReefRangers.com After verifying your tails at a Checkpoint, you may complete a Recreational Tail Submission. -- Tail submission is completed through an online form on our website (similar to the form you filled out when registering for the Challenge). -- The online form will ask you information about when and where your lionfish were harvested and will ask you to upload a copy of your completed verification form. --You may submit either a photo or a scanned copy of your completed verification form. Things to note: Please complete one verification form and one online submission form for each trip you take -- if you harvest lionfish 5 times throughout the tournament, please complete 5 verification forms and 5 online submissions. Please do not bring any smelly fish to your Checkpoint. Checkpoints have the right to deny any rotten or otherwise uncountable tails! Please keep all verification forms until the 2022 Lionfish Challenge has ended Prizes Tiered Prizes Prizes will be awarded in a tiered fashion- the more lionfish you submit, the more prizes you receive! The requirements for each tier and their prizes are as follows Tier 1- Harvest 25 lionfish (recreational category) or 25 lbs of lionfish (commercial category): custom FloGrown shirt and commemorative coin Tier 2- Harvest 100 lionfish (recreational category) or 250 lbs of lionfish (commercial category): Dive flag, DAN cutting sheers, ZooKeeper heat packs, and Sting Master cream Tier 3- Harvest 300 lionfish (recreational category) or 500 lbs of lionfish (commercial category): ZooKeeper, Neritic polespear and puncture resistant gloves Tier 4- Harvest 600 lionfish (recreational category) or 1000 lbs of lionfish (commercial category): YETI 45 hard cooler

Checkpoint Locations

Bay County

Dive Locker

1010 Thomas Dr

Panama City, FL 32408

Diver’s Den

3120 Thomas Dr

Panama City Beach, FL 32408

Panama City Dive Center

4823 Thomas Drive

Panama City Beach, FL 32408

Brevard County

Hatts Diving Headquarters

2006 Front Street

Melbourne, FL 32901

Broward County

Dixie Divers

455 S Federal Highway

Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Force-E Scuba Center – Pompano Beach

1312 North Federal Highway

Pompano Beach, FL 33431

Collier County

SCUBAdventures

971 Creech Rd

Naples FL, 34103

Charlotte County

Gaspar’s Dive N Board

2961 Placida Rd #3

Englewood, FL 34224

Citrus County

Bird’s Underwater

320 NW US Highway 19

Crystal River, FL 34428

Crystal River Watersports

2380 N Suncoast Blvd

Crystal River, FL 34428

Dixie County

Above SeaHorse Reef

250 NE 660th St

Old Town, FL 32680

Duval County

Atlantic Pro Divers

314 14th Avenue North

Jacksonville, FL 32250

Flippers Diving

5069 Beige St

Jacksonville, FL 32258

Escambia County

Dive Pros

7203 W Highway 98

Pensacola, FL 32506

Gulf County

Daly’s Watersports

317 Monument Ave

Port St. Joe, FL 32456

Hillsborough County

Adventure Outfitters

4316 S Manhattan Ave

Tampa, FL 33611

Woods and Water Scuba

124 Edwards Avenue

Brandon, FL 33510

Lee County

Captain Pete’s Diving Outfitters

1413 Colonial Blvd

Fort Myers, FL 33907

Dean’s Dive Center, Inc.

16964 Alico Mission Way

Fort Myers, FL 33908

Manatee County

Scuba Quest

3318 Manatee Ave W

Bradenton, FL 34205

Martin County

Deep Six Dive & Watersports – Stuart

2525 NW Federal Highway

Stuart, FL 34994

Miami-Dade County

Austin’s Diving Center

10525 S Dixie Highway

Miami, FL 33156

Monroe County

Divers Direct- Key Largo

99621 Overseas HWY

Key Largo, FL 33037

Finz Dive Center

5130 Overseas Highway

Key West, FL 33040

Florida Keys Diving Center

90451 Old Highway

Tavernier, FL 33070

Tildens Scuba Center

4650 Overseas Highway

Marathon, FL 33050

Okaloosa County

Destin- Fort Walton Beach Welcome Center

1540 Miracle Strip SE Parkway

Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548

Discovery Dive World – Valparaiso

92 S John Sims Parkway

Valparaiso, FL 32580

ScubaTech of NW Florida

301 Harbor Blvd

Destin, FL 32541

Palm Beach County

Force-E Scuba Center – Boca Raton

2621 North Federal Highway

Boca Raton, FL 33431

Scuba Works

351 South US HWY One, Suite 103

Jupiter, FL 33477

Narcosis Dive Company

200 E 13th Street

West Palm Beach, FL 33404

Pura Vida Divers

2513 Beach Ct

Riviera Beach, FL 33404

Pinellas County

Heroes Dive Center

2109 Main St. A

Dunedin, FL 34698

Jim’s Dive Shop

9385 Bay Pines Blvd

St. Petersburg, FL 33708

Mac’s Sports Inc- Clearwater

2126 Drew Street

Clearwater, FL 33765

Macs Sports Inc- Tarpon Springs

926 N Pinellas Ave

Tarpon Springs, FL 34689

Santa Rosa County

Shark Quest Dive Shop

5614 Gulf Breeze Pkwy

Gulf Breeze, FL 32563

Sarasota County

Florida Underwater Sports

6920 S Tamiami Trail

Sarasota, FL 34231

Venice Dive Center

902 Tamiami Trail S

Nokomis, FL 34275

St. Lucie County

Dive Odyssea

621 N 2nd Street

Fort Pierce, FL 34950

Volusia County

Discover Diving Dive Center

92 Dunlawton Avenue

Port Orange, FL 32127

Spruce Creek Scuba

1646 Taylor Rd

Port Orange, FL 32128

Hall of Fame

Photos

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