Raising awareness of the threat lionfish pose to our endemic species will be the focus of the fifth annual Groundswell Lionfish Tournament next month.

The event, due to take place on July 18 at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, will educate the public about the invasive Indo-Pacific fish as well as reduce their numbers in our waters.

Organisers Matt Strong and Selange Gitschner, of advocacy group Groundswell, which hosts the tournament, anticipate that this year’s event will be the biggest yet — and could help to generate funds for scientific research and management methods.

“Last year we had tremendous support from the general public — it was our largest turnout with over 800 people, including 100 participants,” Mr Strong said.

“We were able to get sponsorship from Gorham’s and Hiscox, and it allowed the tournament to do better than break even. This year CellOne has come on board, too.

“In the past we had to put our own money in to make it a success but last year we were able to give some $1,750 to scientists who were researching the lionfish invasion — Corey Eddy and Tim Noyes from BIOS. Corey is doing his thesis on the invasive lionfish in Bermuda and what it is doing to the reef ecology, and Tim Noyes is working on deep water reef research. Those are two vitally important scientific components.

“There is also the Lionfish Taskforce, which is working on fish traps with the Department of Environmental Protection — we would like to raise some money for that project.

“We want everything raised on the day to go towards research or culling.”

This year, only those with lionfish permits will be allowed to enter the tournament.

Ms Gitschner said: “If you have a lionfish licence we expect to see you out on the water on July 18. Every lionfish removed makes a difference.

“All fish caught on the day are processed for research and the flesh will be used for tasting.”

The tournament begins at sunrise and culminates in a weigh-in and free after-party, open to the public, at BIOS from 3pm. Entry is $25 and includes a tournament T-shirt designed by a local company, Isolated Surfboards.

Chef Chris Malpas will be preparing lionfish to sample, as well as the Island Restaurant Group, and there will be children’s activities including lionfish model painting. There is also a new Instagram page, GroundswellBda, and Twitter hashtag #eatemtobeatem — the tournament’s motto.

“The idea is to show people that lionfish are a problem and we will show them how to catch them, handle them, prepare them and cook them,” Mr Strong said.

“We have overfished our native species — we have eradicated five species of grouper from Bermuda.

“Probably the only natural defence are predators that we have wiped from our reef.

“The idea is to take the pressure off the native fish and put the pressure on the lionfish — if we don’t do that now it is probably going to be one of the only fish we can target later because they are so aggressive and we are seeing their numbers increase dramatically.”

• You can download tournament application forms at www.reefspect.com