Update: The 2020 Emerald Coast Open pre-tournament is set to take place Feb. 1 - May 13 with the main tournament happening May 15-17 in Destin, Florida.

Divers from all over Florida, nine other U.S. states and the Caribbean descended upon the Emerald Coast of Florida last weekend (May 16-19, 2019) for the world’s largest lionfish tournament and awareness event to date. In the two-day event, divers removed 14,119 lionfish from the Gulf of Mexico, in addition to 5,048 lionfish removed during the pre-tournament period, bringing the grand total to 19,167.

This year’s tournament saw more participants than any previous year and distributed $48,000 in cash prizes, with the first-place team walking away with a $10,000 check. The winning team, Florida Man, removed 2,241 lionfish among its four team members in a 48-hour period. Florida Man was captained by Josh Livingston, of Destin, Florida. His teammates are Joe Livingston (Destin), Rachel Bowman (Marathon) and John McCain (High Springs).

The full breakdown of tournament results can be found here.

After the tournament, we chatted with Alex Fogg, Marine Resource Coordinator for the Emerald Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau in Okaloosa County, who said the majority of lionfish captured went to market. Ultimately, the divers can choose to sell or keep their catch. Almost 7,000 pounds of lionfish were purchased by Halperns’, a seafood distributor that works with the Whole Foods grocery chain.