ABOARD THE LADY GO DIVER — Drifting in the slight chop of the Atlantic Ocean a mile off Florida’s eastern coast, small groups of divers armed with spears and a purpose tumbled deliberately backward off the boat into the sea so deeply blue it was the hue of ripe blueberries.

Diving as deep as 100 feet below the surface, they scoured rocky and coral outcroppings for elusive, invasive lionfish to kill as many of them as possible. 

With venomous, featherlike spines, the beautiful fish — distinguished by their red, brown and white stripes — threaten Florida’s reef ecosystems so dangerously that the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has organized contests to reward recreational and commercial divers who kill and remove them. Monday was the final day for this year’s statewide contest.

Divers speared the fish at depth and placed them, dead or alive, inside clear containers to return to the boat to be counted toward this year’s prize. Topside, back aboard the 46-foot dive boat, they carefully clipped the venomous spines that can inflict injuries so bad they are described as among the most painful in the ocean. Each tail counted toward this year’s tally.

Lionfish, which can grow over a foot in length and are native to the South Pacific and Indian oceans, have become an ecological menace in Florida because they voraciously eat smaller fish and have no natural predators here. They were first sighted in Florida waters in 1985. A single lionfish can devastate native fish along stretches of Atlantic reefs.

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Last year’s winner, Baye Beauford, 45, of Jacksonville, who owns a car repair shop, caught 1,514 during the three-month summer tournament. All told, hundreds of divers across Florida captured more than 30,000 fish during more than 900 trips last year. 

The wildlife commission was expected to formally announce this year’s winner next month. Beauford was leading in Florida with 915 late Monday, according to unofficial figures.

In an interview late Monday from Jacksonville just after returning from another dive, Beauford said he dives for lionfish twice a week about 25 miles off the coast of North Florida, where he said there are fewer recreational divers competing for lionfish than in South Florida.

This year, he said, he noticed fewer small lionfish on the reefs and more large ones. After conversations with a state biologist, Beauford believes lionfish in the areas he dives may be exhausting the food supply of smaller reef fish — and cannibalizing small examples of their own kind. Beauford said he’s also hearing reports of nurse sharks hunting lionfish.

Three hundred miles south, aboard the Lady Go Diver off Pompano Beach, Tim Robinson stood in shorts and flip flops giving last-minute instructions for divers to spear lionfish. The boat is operated by DX “Dixie” Divers of Deerfield Beach.

Robinson is tan with close-cropped hair and a lobster tattoo that engulfs his entire right forearm. He was in third place late Monday with 726 lionfish, according to unofficial results.

Robinson, 63, of Parkland in Broward County, runs these underwater hunting expeditions as a managing partner for the LZK Group LLC, a Sunrise-based company that sells spearfishing and lionfish equipment under the ZooKeeper brand. Robinson regularly dives in the waters off Pompano Beach, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Boynton Beach. ZooKeeper has sponsored the lionfish challenge with the wildlife commission.

“Right now, the only answer is divers, diving and shooting them,” Robinson said. “They’re trying to come up with some traps and stuff, but [it’s] difficult because the lionfish is a different species.”

A company spokeswoman, Particia Mauldin, said organizations like ZooKeeper represent the primary predators for lionfish in the Atlantic Ocean.

“If there wasn’t anybody out there hunting, it would kill the reef,” she said.

One of the divers on this trip was Cristina Parr, 40, of Loxahatchee. A former personal trainer who runs a medical spa for athletes, she started hunting lionfish as a hobby, she said. She appreciated Robinson’s knowledge and experience making it safer. Parr had little interest in feeling the effects of lionfish venom from a barb.

“They definitely make it safer to catch them,” Parr said. “It makes it more appealing and easier to catch them and enjoy your dive without being worried about getting stung.”

After two, 30-minute dives, the group of about 15 caught 10 lionfish, along with spearing a few traditionally caught reef fish for dinner. 

Despite the scary venom in their spines, the meat from lionfish is edible, said to resemble cod or snapper with a buttery flavor.

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at landerson2l@freshtakeflorida.com. You can donate to support the students here.