ENJOY BATTLING THE SCOURGE OF LIONFISH

The ninth annual Lion sh Festival is slated for May 20-21 at AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar and HarborWalk Village in Destin, Fla. is outdoor event is free, open to the public and will feature family-friendly activities, art, diving and marine conservation booths, live music, llet demonstrations, and the world’s largest lion sh tournament, the Emerald Coast Open.

TOURNAMENT DETAILS e Emerald Coast Open will run May 1920 and include categories for most lion sh, largest lion sh and smallest lion sh with nearly $100,000 worth of prizes up for grabs. For o cial tournament rules and registration instructions, visit EmeraldCoastOpen. com.

LIONFISH RESTAURANT WEEK

Sample lion sh at one of Destin–Fort Walton Beach’s featured restaurants during the Emerald Coast Open Lion sh Restaurant Week. Local chefs will highlight lion sh in unique dishes in the week leading up to the event to help bring awareness to the lion sh invasion in the Gulf of Mexico.

Schedule:

• e Boathouse Landing, Valparaiso – May 12

• e Harbor Tavern – May 13

• Dewey Destin’s Harborside – May 14

• Crab Trap Destin – May 15

• La Paz – May 16

• Harbor Docks – May 17

• Brotula’s Seafood House & Steamer – May 18

• AJ’s Seafood & Oyster Bar– May 20

Lionfish Challenge

e 2023 Lion sh Challenge is a summer-long tournament open to everyone and completely free to enter. Participants in last year’s Challenge reached a signi cant milestone of over 1 million lion sh harvested from Florida waters since the program began in 2014! Visit FWCReefRangers. com to register for the Lion sh Challenge.

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