State fishery managers will unveil a new lionfish smart phone app today as yet another weapon in the battle to eradicate the invasive fish that is taking over the Florida Keys reef.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will unveil the new application in an hour-long Twitter chat event starting at 2 p.m. The free app will allow fishermen and divers to report encounters with lionfish and learn more about the species, FWC spokeswoman Amanda Nalley said.

On Tuesday, Nalley did not disclose too many details about the app, as the FWC wants to unveil those details today at its Twitter chat event, she said.

The chat will begin with a short video, followed by fun facts and a chance to ask questions about lionfish and the new app, Nalley said. Participants will also be challenged by a series of trivia questions with the chance to win a recently redesigned FWC "Lionfish Control Team" T-shirt. With the use of another free app called Aurasma, "the logo on the back comes to life," Nalley said. People can use the Aurasma app to scan the logo on the T-shirt and a video will appear on their smart phones, she said.

To participate, people must sign in to Twitter and follow @MyFWClife or #FWCLionfish. People must make sure the Tweets have the #FWCLionfish in them so the fishery managers can see them, Nalley said.

The app is the latest in a series of actions the FWC has taken to make it easier to wipe out the lionfish population in Florida. The FWC held a statewide lionfish symposium in October in Cocoa Beach and worked with ocean conservation groups to develop a series of proposed regulations to control the growing population.

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