‘I didn’t even try,’ says Florida diver who speared 915 lionfish, wins annual tournament

The FWC Lionfish Challenge in Florida saw record-breaking participation and catch numbers this year. Some 285 divers removed 31,773 invasive lionfish from fragile coral reef ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, according to a press release from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

One of those divers was 46-year-old Baye Beauford of Jacksonville, who single-handedly speared 915 lionfish. Beauford went on to win the recreational division of the four-month competition. He won the same division until 2023Beauford’s friend and diving partner, Dale Wolber, finished in second place with 866 fish, and Tim Robinson of Broward County (with whom OL has fished before) was third with 726 lionfish.

“The first year of the challenge I came in second without even trying,” Beauford tells OL.

Beauford isn’t bragging. Instead, he attributes his ease in beating other divers to the alarming severity of the lionfish problem off the coast of Duval County in northeastern Florida. Divers in the Jacksonville area put little pressure on the lionfish population. This sets Jacksonville apart from other areas in Florida, such as the Keys, where divers catch lionfish more often and keep populations down. During the four months of the competition, Beauford and his friends went on trips about once or twice a week, meaning his 915 lionfish came from just a few dozen trips.

The divers travel about 30 miles offshore to reach reefs with the most explosive lionfish populations. They dive to about 90 to 100 feet and hunt for about a half hour at a time, Beauford says. Lionfish are relatively easy to spot around these reefs, even though they’re not large fish; Beauford’s personal best is a 2.98-pound.

Recreational participants like Beauford register their fish for the months-long competition by cutting off lionfish tails, freezing them and delivering them to a nearby checkpoint, usually a tackle shop or other certified location.

The Lionfish Problem in Florida

Lionfish are voracious, invasive predatory fish which have established themselves in the waters around the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast, where they feed on grouper, snapper and other game fish in the area. They are native to Indo-Pacific waters, but have probably been introduced to Florida and elsewhere along the U.S. coast as a result of the aquarium trade.

Because native predatory fish in the area do not recognize lionfish as potential prey, they currently have no natural predators. This is where spear divers come in. Similar to the Python Challenge in Florida, the Lionfish Challenge encourages divers to catch as many lionfish as possible in the hopes of making a difference in the conservation of native marine ecosystems.

A single lionfish living in a coral reef can reduce the recruitment, or successful population growth, of native reef fish by as much as 79 percent. according to NOAA. Considering the fact that lionfish can reaches With a population density of 200 fish per hectare of reef, they take a huge toll on the native fish population.

It helps that lionfish are also delicious, and their skins are useful for intricate jewelry and leather trim. Both uses create a demand for lionfish byproducts, which in turn helps encourage removal. In fact, the commercial division of the Lionfish Challenge is reserved for divers who sell the fish they harvest, and their harvests are recorded by the pound rather than the individual fish. (All three of the top commercial finishers were also from Duval County — divers Beauford knows well; Matt Meyers took first place with 1,785 pounds of fish.)

Currently, a pound of lionfish meat costs about $6, Beauford says. Lionfish has become his family’s favorite protein; Beauford says it’s similar to hogfish or red snapper with its white, flaky meat. Now he just wants more people to get in on the action.

“People don’t hear about them because they’re not on the menu in a lot of places,” Beauford says. “We have one distributor here who owns nine restaurants, and he’s got them on his menu. But that’s pretty much all there is to it. [in Jacksonville].”

While other culinary favorites like sea bass and snapper are being wiped out by lionfish, Beauford sees an opportunity to restore order to the marine food chain by changing the types of fish he puts on the table.

“Lionfish can eat three times their own body weight a day, and they eat grouper and snapper and all the species that are heavily regulated that we would otherwise eat,” he says. “But this species is actually a sustainable source of fish. We can’t get them all, and they reproduce so quickly.”

Read more: Photos from the world’s largest lionfish derby

Although Beauford plans to continue hunting lionfish outside of competition, he was still thrilled to be crowned Lionfish King for the second year in a row.

“It feels great,” Beauford said of winning this year’s competition. “We all know each other. We’re a team that goes out there and finishes it.”