We have a new site with news about IFQ's and a section where you can list shares and allotments for sale or lease as well as commercial boats, permits, gear and tackle for sale. It is listed on the main menu above, check it out.
Learn MoreContact the White House
Please help us fight the unfair closure of a healthy fishery based on poor science and incomplete data by joining in an attempt to bring the open letter at right to our new President's attention. The White House has a website where you can send a short message to the President. You can either Copy and Paste one of the example messages in the message box or type one of your own directing him to this page. (http://southernoffshorefishing.org)
Supporting Documents
We have a number of supporting documents regarding the turtle issue as well as TAC allocation. Some were prepared on our behalf by Dr. Trevor Kenchington of Gadus Associates to present to the Gulf Council and others prepared either by or for the Council as well as one prepared for CCA asking for complete re-allotment of the grouper quota to the recreational sector. We have summarized some points from these documents in the article to the right, but we want to make them available to any interested parties so you can see what the real numbers are and draw your own conclusions. Aside from the PowerPoint presentation from the Gulf Council all of the following are pdf format.
Dr. Trevor Kenchington, Gadus Associates
Jacob Sobin
Gulf Council Presentation
Coastal Conservation Association
Front Page Feed
Feed Entries Submit Comments
File a Public Comment
As per U.S.Law, when the NMFS inserts an item in the Federal Register they open a public comment period. Make a comment now on the Turtle vs. Longliners issue, specifically on the petitions that were gathered by Oceana and other NGOs using false pretense and lousy science to convince otherwise uninformed but well meaning citizens that the closure is the only option that makes sense.
>>Read More for links to comment page on the Government site and suggested comment text.
Finally: A Breath of Air
New England Fishery Management Council breaks ranks with NMFS.
(You can follow this ongoing story from the main menu above: Fishery News | News From New England links.)
Finally. A fisheries management council with the integrity to stand up to the NMFS and their narrow interpretation of a bill that was never intended to "bring the fisheries to their knees".
Hopefully, this breath of fresh air, which echos a sentiment that has been written many times on this site, will blow through the entire broken regulatory system ...
The Gulf Partnership
We are committed to helping all fishermen and in the spirit of that commitment, we helped form the Gulf Partnership for Marine Fisheries this past year. This Partnership is a historical coalition of commercial and recreational fishing interest groups working together for a common cause. Our primary goals are outlined below:-
- To fund and facilitate good and accurate science for the fisheries.
- To provide the regulators with more input on which to base their decisions.
- To try and help bring about, through education and the use of good science, a reversal in the progression of unfair and overly restrictive regulation.
Fishery Blogs
News Blog
| Fishery News from S.O.F.A. |
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Sorting Table
A National Fisherman Blog
| The Sorting Table |
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Opinion Blog
An Opinionated Blog from S.O.F.A.
| The Way You See It |
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Nils Stolpe
The Rest of the Story
| Commercial fishing - the rest of the story |
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Bill Tracker
H.R. 1584: Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009 has been introduced and has been sent to the House Committee on Natural Resources . A similar version of this bill has died in committee the past two years. Please do not let this happen this year. This bill proposes nothing more than a common sense approach to fishery regulation that should have been in the re-authorized Magnuson-Stevens Act from the beginning and will help provide some desperately needed relief for beleaguered commercial fisheries and fishermen.
Help bring this to the attention of your Congressmen and Senators. They don't use email so you will have to go to the websites of your Congressman and our two Senators (or your own if you aren't in Florida). The Florida Delegation's contact links and an example message you can copy and paste into the message box on their website are here.
You can track what we need to be the steady progress of this bill through Congress with the widget below.
CCA's Real Agenda = GREED
Conservation? Who are they kidding?
In a move that gives whole new meaning to the term "Conservation", the CCA has initiated an attempt to grab the entire resource of the grouper fishery for the recreational sector. Pleas read our full article and download, print and fill out and return the pdf file to help us try to block this latest act from a group with a history of being motivated more by greed and special interest coddling than "conservation" of anything aside from their own interests and agenda.