Team StingMaster had the pleasure of attending and sponsoring the 2022 Emerald Coast Open Lionfish Derby from May 13-15 in Destin, Florida. We had so much fun that we thought we’d give you all a little run-down of what happened.
We were vendors during the Lionfish Removal Awareness Day Festival that coincides with the tournament, so we got to be a part of all the action for the whole weekend. On Saturday, once we arrived and started setting up our booth, we were very excited to see that we were placed right next to our friends at ZooKeeper! They have an amazing lionfish containment unit which allows people to safely hunt lionfish, but which can also be used to hunt lobster, pick up trash in the ocean and so much more. They also have a wide array of products from apparel, to spears and first aid on their website aside (they even have StingMaster!) so you should certainly check them out. We met lots of people who were interested in learning about lionfish, and a few who have their own StingMasters and love to use them on jellyfish and lionfish stings.
Sunday was the real action-packed day for us. On Sunday, everyone participating in the Emerald Coast Open tournament comes back to land to submit their fish to be counted, peruse the lionfish festival and hear the results of the tournament. It felt like non-stop traffic at our booth: so many happy customers who either bought StingMaster last year during the ECO or who have bought StingMaster through other avenues like dive shops, our website or the ZooKeeper website.
In the end, the tournament was a huge success in removing lionfish from our oceans. A total of 13 835 lionfish were removed from the ocean with the largest one measuring 436 mm (that’s 17.1 inches!) caught by team Big Blue, and the smallest one measuring 39 mm (1.5 inches, the size of a box of StingMaster), caught by team Alabama Jammin. Check out more statistics from the tournament on the Emerald Coast Open website.
The overall winning team was Deepwater Mafia, who are themselves users of StingMaster! Here is a photo of some of their team members last year with their jars of StingMaster.
Unfortunately, the weekend ended with a good old fashioned Florida rainstorm, but that didn’t stop the crowd from gathering and collecting all their raffle prizes! Congrats to those who managed to snag a jar of StingMaster.
All in all, it was a superb weekend and we were so happy to be around all things lionfish and see our fellow community members. We met so many of our customers and heard so many positive reviews about StingMaster – it feels like everyone in Florida has a jar or two in their medicine cabinet, just in case!
Check out this wonderful recap video from Okaloosa county:
StingMaster is the world’s first over-the-counter, fast-acting and scientifically-backed ointment that provides complete relief from the pain caused by lionfish and jellyfish stings in under 2 minutes. Its patented formula is made with high-quality and tested ingredients and is made in the USA.
