A tight limit on recreational lobster diving licences, set last year to 175, is to continue for the coming season, which starts on September 1 and runs to the end of March.

The move continues in the face of low numbers for the popular catch, which is blamed on complex environmental factors as well as fishing.

Fisheries officials have highlighted a drop in the average number of spiny lobsters caught per trap since 2016.

Licences will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis from August 21 at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources headquarters in the Botanical Gardens, Paget.

Although some fisherman have criticised recent restrictions, many recreational fishermen have chosen to pivot away from lobster fishing to target a recent arrival in Bermuda’s waters - the lionfish.

Makin’ Waves, a surf and beachwear shop in Hamilton, has sponsored a popular lobster tournament from 1997 — but decided last year to help lobsters recover, and take their hunt to the invasive lionfish instead.

Stuart Joblin, one of the store’s owners, said: “We made a decision because we were seeing fewer lobsters and having to work harder to catch the same amount.

“We’ve noticed a steady progression over the years of that.

“It just started to feel like it was not a good thing to encourage. If you want to catch them on your own, that’s good, but I didn’t think it was necessary to promote while we were having challenges with lobsters.”

The number of recreational lobster diver licences available each season has been reduced from a cap of 500 in 2017 to 340 in 2022 before tighter restrictions were introduced last year.

In 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs tightened limits on both commercial and recreational catches of spiny lobster to help rebuild a population it said had shown “a significant decline“.

The DENR is to continue monitoring and collecting data from commercial and recreational fishers to guide fishery management.

Mr Joblin told The Royal Gazette that, at the same time that divers saw lobster numbers slipping, “we noticed huge increases in the numbers of lionfish”.

Lionfish, introduced from their habitat in the Indian and Pacific oceans, have no natural predators in the Atlantic and are not recognised as a threat by local fish.

The predators, armed with venomous spines, have thrived off Bermuda at the expense of the island’s fisheries.

Mr Joblin said Makin’ Waves now co-sponsored hunting of the species with the Bermuda Lionfish Task Force.

With the lobster tournament retired, lionfish hunters can haul in a catch with no restrictions, or seasons.

Mr Joblin highlighted the Niel Jones Lionfish Memorial Tournament, which will run from August 15 to 18, with the weigh-in scheduled for 5.30pm to 7.30pm on the final day at Dive Bermuda on Robinson’s Marina in Somerset.

Makin’ Waves is taking registrations at $20 each.

“We’re redirecting our efforts towards removing an invasive species from the water,” Mr Joblin said.

He added that bagging lionfish made him notice “I have that hunting instinct — lionfish gives me that feeling”.

“They are also super tasty.”

Weldon Wade, an ocean conservationist, praised the move.

He said: “I know from the community that there’s been a shift in how it deals with lobstering. Makin’ Waves is now abandoning the lobster tournament in favour of lionfish.

“Lobster hunters I know are going after lionfish and leaving lobsters alone.”

Mr Wade, who is the founder of the group Guardians of the Reef, said he had only been stopped once by fisheries wardens over “the many years that I combed the reef”.

The conservationist said that helping the struggling lobster population was largely up to individual licence holders.

He added: “Some guys flout restrictions and some do not. I don’t think that it’s many. Guys I know that take their boats out do their best.”

Chris Flook, the boat and dock supervisor at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, said he had heard about the decline of lobster numbers.

“People say there just aren’t that many out there,” Mr Flook said.

“There’s a lot going on with climate and environmental change. It’s been a number of years coming to this point where the numbers are down.”

Walter Roban, the home affairs minister, said last year that “immediate action was needed”.

He said that lobster numbers had rebounded in the wake of restrictions imposed in the 2001-02 season after catch rates plummeted.

The cap on recreational licences announced this week did not mention commercial licences.

Last year, fishermen were told that the ranks of those eligible to bring in lobster would be cut from 22 to 11, and the Fishermen’s Association of Bermuda said then that the cutbacks threatened to make lobster fishing “not economically feasible”.

The DENR statement reminded recreational fishers that the deadline to report catch data, including zero catches, for the 2023-24 season was last April 30.

Divers licensed last season will only be eligible for relicensing if they submitted their catch statistics to the DENR by that deadline.