May 11, 2016 — Environmental leaders are looking for an economic roar from the troubling invasion of lionfish into the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Because of the high concentration of the fish in the waters off Pensacola, the region has become Florida’s lionfish capital, the leaders said Monday night during a Regional Lionfish Control Workshop sponsored by Escambia County.
“What we are trying to do is to turn that lemon into lemonade,” Anna Clark of the Pensacola-based environmental advocacy organization Coast Watch Alliance told the group.
Clark and others pushed ideas that might provide a boost to the local economy while also combating the lionfish problem, including ecotourism based on “lionfish safaris.” The plan would encourage divers who spearfish to come to the area to hunt lionfish.
Clark’s organization and the University of Florida’s Sea Grant program also are working to encourage retailers to sell lionfish meat and to promote restaurants that offer lionfish-based menu items.