Where to hunt lionfish
Have you always wanted to try lionfish hunting but didn’t know where to go? Are you a seasoned lionfish hunter and looking for new territory or want to hunt while on a diving vacation?
The list below features dive centers and private scuba diving guides that promote safe and ethical lionfish hunting programs, courses and tours. If you want to know where to hunt lionfish, please contact one of these providers below. You can also check out the reports on the interactive lionfish tracking map at Lionfish.info to see who is hunting the lionfish in your area.
★ Represents dive shops we have personally used and recommend
Caribbean & Latin America
Akumal, Mexico– http://www.divewithnatalieandivan.com/index.html
Aruba–
Bahamas
- http://www.julietsailinganddiving.com/ (liveaboard dive boat departs Miami)★
- Stuart Cove’s – Nassau
Barbados– http://www.divebarbadosblue.com/★
Bay Islands of Honduras
– Utila– http://www.utilacaysdiving.com/★
Bermuda– http://www.bermudascuba.com/lionfish
Belize– http://reefci.com/ Sapodilla Cays
- http://www.splashbelize.com/ ★ Placencia
- GoSea Belize Placencia
- Turneffe Flats Turneffe Atoll
Bonaire– https://vipdiving.com/courses/specialty-courses/lionfish-hunting-course/★
- http://www.wannadive.com/wannapress/
- Lionfish Removal and Research trips, Bonaire on Facebook
- Carib Inn
British Virgin Islands – Sorry, the BVI don’t allow visitors to hunt lionfish
Carriacou– http://www.deeferdiving.com
Cayman– http://oceanfrontiers.com/dive-boat-trips/lionfish-hunt.html
Colombia– Diving Planet in Cartagena/Isla del Rosario
Cozumel, Mexico– Lionfish Hunting in Cozumel with ScubaLuis ★
Cuba– Nothing to link to, but we understand you can lionfish hunt around the island.
Curacao–
- Lionfish Caribbean http://lionfishcaribbean.com/learn-lionfishhunting-curacao★
- http://www.oceanencounters.com/en/diving-a-snorkeling/lionfish-scuba-dive-experience
- http://www.scubalodge.com/en/lion-fish/
- Scubacao Diving Adventures http://www.scubacao.com/lionfish-hunting-curacao/
- Blue Bay dive shop https://www.diveshopcuracao.com/en
Dominica– http://www.divedominica.com/
Dominican Republic– http://scubafun.info/ contact John Sack
- http://divingdr.com/ Sharky’s
Grenada– http://www.ecodiveandtrek.com/
Guadeloupe– An-Ba Dlola
Jamaica– http://www.scuba-jamaica.com/
- http://couples.com/ Couples and Couples Swept Away resorts in Negril & Ocho Rios are lionfish hunting friendly
Martinique– Sorry, the french islands don’t allow tourists to hunt lionfish
Montserrat– http://www.aquamontserrat.com/#!home/mainPage
Panama– http://www.goldenfrogscuba.com/ Rey Sanchez
- http://dive.com.pa/ Alvaro Silva
- http://www.2oceansdivers.com/
Puerto Rico– Fajardo http://www.divepuertorico.com/
- Vieques http://islanenascuba.com/
- Roberto Reyes (Freediving only) http://www.freediverspuertorico.com/
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico– http://tankha.com/
- Abyss Dive Center http://www.abyssdivecenter.com/
- Diversity Diving https://diversitydiving.com/lionfish-hunting/
St. Kitts & Nevis
St. Lucia– http://www.aadivers.org/about.html
St. Martin– Sorry, the french islands don’t allow tourists to hunt lionfish
Trinidad & Tobago– http://divingintobago.com// Wild Turtle Scuba Club
- http://www.cocomotion.net/ Marlon Winter Roach
- http://www.tobagofrontierdivers.com/ Frontier Divers
- –http://www.underseatobago.com/ Undersea Tobago
Turks & Caicos Islands – Sorry, the Turks & Caicos don’t allow visitors to hunt lionfish
US Virgin Islands
- http://www.corevi.org/invasive-lionfish.html★
- Sweet Bottom Divers – St. Croix
- Dive Experience – St. Croix
- Blue Canyon Charters – St. Croix
United States
Alabama
- Gary’s Gulf Divers – Lion Fish Round Up Series (Orange Beach)
- Gulf Coast Divers (Mobile)
Florida
- Niuhi Dive Charters (Pensacola)
- Florida Dive Pros (Pensacola)
- Off Duty Dive Charters (Destin)
- Jolly Rogers Dive Charter (Pensacola)
- Islamorada Dive Center (Islamorada)
- Juliet Sailing and Diving (Charter Homeport in Miami)★
- ENNDS.Org (Non-profit organizing lionfish hunts in South Florida)★
Are you a lionfish hunting friendly dive center or private divemaster that offers a lionfish-specific education program and will take clients to hunt non-native invasive lionfish? Do you know of a scuba diving center that should be on this list? Send us an email here with the name of the dive shop, center or service, location (city, state and country) and a URL to either the business’ Facebook page or website (preferably a link to a page that mentions lionfish hunting) for possible inclusion on this page.
We do our best to complete a bit of research on each dive center before adding them to this page. If we cannot verify through their website, social media pages, review sites, photos, etc. that they hunt lionfish or promote lionfish invasion awareness, then we usually will not include them here. Are you a travelling lionfish hunter interested in maximizing travel rewards? Check out The Point Pirate for excellent up to date travel rewards and points information.
Where do y’all encounter other lion fish?
Don’t forget about Utila Dive Center (UDC) – the dive center that developed and wrote the PADI Lionfish specialty !
Thanks Ed, I just updated the list with UDC.
Blue H2o Cozumel does a kick ass lion fish hunt. We used their boat and then we used their dpv’s.
Can anyone recommend some good hunting sites and dive centres up the east coast of Florida please?
seeking someone wo can take us a place to go for lionfish in KewWest and lower Keys
For private charter a good option which I’ve used is Eric at http://laidbackkeywest.com/ There is also http://www.diveduckkey.com/ which I believe allows lionfish hunting.
We don’t see many in the usual dive sites in the upper Keys, apparently largely hunted out. I hear you must go at least 100′ down to fund any numbers. Any info about good intermediate depth populations will be acted upon.
Anywhere in the St. Pete area that have lionfish dives? There’s a bunch of derbies, but I can’t find lionfish dives.
Hi Katie, I don’t know of any dive shops that are running lionfish specific trips in that area, but I suspect most of the dive operators will allow you to hunt, and might set up a trip targeting them if you call and ask. I’ve never had a dive boat in Florida tell me I can’t hunt lionfish from their boat.
Do you know anywhere in Turkey? We also need to address this problem. Yet, nobody seems to understand the importance of these creatures. I guess, we need an encouragement which I hope gets here before it’s too late.
i live in tampa. if anybody wants to put together a dive for lionfish specifically, i would sign up.
I would like to do so