The war on lionfish is heating up.

The newest weapon by Florida fish and wildlife officials to encourage the removal of the invasive species is a state records program that will recognize divers and fishermen who catch the biggest, smallest, heaviest and lightest lionfish. Cash rewards may be added to the program, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Amanda Nalley said.

"We definitely don't claim that we will ever be able to eradicate the species," Nalley said. "The possibility of eradicating them is pretty small. But what we want to encourage is control of the population."

Lionfish, which first appeared in Florida during the 1990s, seem a nearly unconquerable predator. Females lay nearly 2 million eggs during a lifetime and their venomous spines keep unfriendlies away. The lionfish's ravenous appetite has caused some native fish populations nearly to disappear in the Atlantic.

Think of lionfish as the state's aquatic equivalent of the Burmese python, which has become the Everglades' king predator with devastating impacts on native animal species.

Irresponsible pet owners have been blamed for releasing pythons and lionfish into the wild, resulting in the invasion of both species.

The FWC has fought back against the Burmese python and has been even more aggressive against lionfish with a year-round series of programs, including fishing derbies and "adopt a reef" campaigns, intended to stem its exponential growth.

The records program is the newest prong in that attack. Record holders will receive a T-shirt and certificate and be listed on MyFWC.com in perpetuity -- or until somebody breaks their mark.

"We're always looking for new and innovative ways to encourage people to remove lionfish from our waters and this is one more thing that people had asked for," Nalley said.

Only one category -- longest lionfish -- has an established record. Jimmy Nelson, a boat captain based in the Keys, caught a 477-millimeter (18.78 inches) lionfish off Islamorada in 2015.

That record will be hard to beat. No one in the world is known to have caught a longer lionfish, which has an average size of 12 to 15 inches.

But if Nelson's mark seems out of reach, there are several other categories to compete in. Aside from the largest and smallest in terms of length and weight, the FWC has a hook-and-line category -- most lionfish are caught with spears -- and a junior competition for those hunters ages 16 and under.

Nalley said the FWC wanted to include competition on both sides of the size spectrum because "we didn't want to just encourage people to remove the large ones ... "