The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is set to launch its 2026 Lionfish Challenge, introducing new competition categories and expanded prize opportunities aimed at attracting more participants.<\/p>\n
The annual challenge starts on May 22 and will run through Sept. 14.<\/p>\n
It is designed to encourage the removal of invasive lionfish from Florida waters while recognizing a broader range of recreational and commercial harvesters.<\/p>\n
FWC officials said the traditional Recreational and Commercial Champion titles have been replaced with five new awards:<\/p>\n
Lionfish King, awarded to the top male participant in the recreational division<\/p>\n
Lionfish Queen, awarded to the top female participant in the recreational division<\/p>\n
Commercial Champion, awarded to the top participant in the commercial division<\/p>\n
Junior Harvester, awarded to the top recreational participant younger than 18<\/p>\n
Veteran Champion, awarded to the top recreational participant who is an active-duty service member or military veteran<\/p>\n
In addition, the challenge will recognize a Top Supporter and a Top FWC Lionfish Checkpoint Participant.<\/p>\n
\u201cLionfish derbies and the FWC Lionfish Challenge are a great way to help reduce lionfish numbers on coral reefs,\u201d Tony Hart, FWC\u2019s lionfish outreach coordinator, said in a statement. \u201cDivers who participate are supporting conservation and doing their part to protect the vital marine resources in and around Florida\u2019s waters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lionfish are an invasive species known to harm native marine life and habitats. FWC officials said a single female lionfish can release as many as 30,000 eggs every four days, allowing populations to grow rapidly and outcompete native species for food and space.<\/p>\n
Portions of this story were created with <\/p>\n
Portions of this story were created with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool. An NBC6 editor reviewed the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is set to launch its 2026 Lionfish Challenge, introducing new competition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-238301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}