The result of Florida's summertime Lionfish Challenge shows divers removed 36,187 of the invasive species this year, beating last year by about 5,000 of the sea creatures.

Commercial and recreational divers compete in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission event to win fishing and boating gear, and earn bragging rights.

Lionfish belong to the scorpionfish family and have 18 venomous spines along their fins.

Lionfish entered Southwest Florida and broader Atlantic waters in the later 1980s, when someone with a fish tank-full of pet fish released them into the ocean. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports genetic research shows that the entire invasive population descended from perhaps less than 10 of the fish released from one or more home aquariums into Biscayne Bay.

Female lionfish release tens of thousands of eggs every few days. That high fertility rate, ocean currents, and a lack of natural predators allowed the invasive species to colonize the Florida Keys, the Caribbean, and the warm waters of the Gulf including wrecks, reefs, and mangroves forests in Southwest Florida.

Because they do not bite hooks, the only way to catch them is by diving and using handheld gear like spears, Hawaiian slings, or hand-held nets.

Spearfishermen must get close to the venomous animal to make a precise shot -typically to the head - and then store the fish in a rigid, hard-sided containers to avoid getting poked by one of the spines.

An episode of PBS NewsHour about lionfish can be viewed by clicking here.

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