This year, on September 26 and 27 in Manzanillo in Costa Rica’s Southern Caribbean, a two day Tournament to capture Lionfish is being organized by the Association of Artisanal Fisher People of the Sothern Caribbean (ASOpacs)

On Saturday September 26 the contest will feature some 50-snorkel divers and the same amount of scuba divers will participate on Sunday September 27 in Playa Manzanillo, Talamanca, Limón.  

Since 2012 ASOpacs in Punta Uva and Manzanillo, the tournaments promote the capture of the invasive species by engaging the community, disseminating information and providing a meal where people can taste the Lionfish.¡

The tournaments are part of the strategy of ASOpacs to contribute to the control of the voracious predator from the Indo-Pacific that has populated the Caribbean waters with no predator to eat it but us humans.

The diving tournament is open to everyone who can snorkel and wants to contribute to reduce species.

In teams of three for the snorkeling contest, participants will be taken by boat to hunt Lionfish for several hours in the morning, while at shore; visitors will participate in related activities.

This is the first time ASOpacs includes a scuba diving day in its traditional tournament, which will allow participants to catch the fish in greater depths by using scuba tanks. It is widely known that one of the characterístics of the Lionfish is that it has the ability to live its adult life in a wider range of depths than most other species. The habitat they occupy as adults goes from less than one meter of depth to 60 meters or more.  That is why ASOpacs has designed multiple strategies to catch it, from traps that go even deeper than scuba divers and remain fishing for days, to hook fishing on a smaller scale, to apnea diving and now scuba diving also. 

The inclusion of a scuba diving day is possible because the activity will be coordinated by the Ambassadors of the Sea Diving Center, a newly established project by ASOpacs, training young people in the Southern Caribbean to scuba dive with “intent” to learn to protect and clean the reefs and ocean waters from Lionfish and debris.

ASOpacs is a non-profit organization created in 2011 to open a space for and by fisher people to organize to improve their lives and protect marine ecosystems.