TAMPA, Fla. — Anyone who likes to fish and is up for a little challenge — there may be something you can do during the summer.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced the 2022 Lionfish Challenge tournament that will take place during the summer months.
Starting Friday, competitors from around the Sunshine State will compete to remove as many lionfish as they can until Sept. 6.
"This is the seventh year of the Lionfish Challenge and our goal is still the same: remove as many lionfish as we can in just 3.5 months," FWC leaders explain in a news release. "Are you up for the Challenge?"
Here are the tournament details from FWC to keep in mind:
Timeline
The tournament will start Friday, May 20 and will run all the way up until Sept. 6, which is a total of 3.5 months of fish catching.
Categories
Participants will compete in either the commercial or the recreational division.
Prizes
According to FWC, prizes will be awarded in tiers.
- Tier 1 - Harvest 25 lionfish (recreational category) or 25 pounds of lionfish (commercial category).
- Tier 2 - Harvest 100 lionfish (recreational category) or 250 pounds of lionfish (commercial category).
- Tier 3 - Harvest 300 lionfish (recreational category) or 500 pounds of lionfish (commercial category).
- Tier 4- Harvest 600 lionfish (recreational category) or 1000 pounds of lionfish (commercial category)
Additional prizes will be provided by FloGrown, Neritic, ZooKeeper, Divers Alert Network, Shearwater, Smith Optics, GoPro, YETI and more.
Click here to read the full tournament rules or to register.