Our most urgent challenge is to fight the unjustified closure of the healthy bottom longline fishery in the Gulf of Mexico.  S.O.F.A. has teamed up with the GFA and we are working closely together but we need your help.  We have a lobbyist in Washington, DC working for us.  We have the law firm of Mike Mastry working with us.  We have Gadus Associates, the scientific consultant working with us.  We have distributed to fish houses a petition letter drafted by the lobbyinst, asking for some consideration of our side of the issues, something we were denied by The Gulf Council when they reacted in a knee-jerk manner to the threat of litigation from a well funded coalition of litigatious and extremist environmental groups.  The lawyers are busy exploring legal avenues we can use to perhaps get some relief, both financial and in the form of a reduction in the ongoing draconian regulations.  The Scientific Consultants have already made a presentation at the last Council meeting and although it was ignored by the Council it is a start as a matter of record.  Dr. Kenchington is continuing to analyze the data NMFS has to further shed light on the weakness of their case for closing the fishery. 

As always, this is not going to be cheap.  G.F.A. and S.O.F.A. are splitting the cost for the consulting scientist, the legal team, and the lobbyist.  We need all the help we can get from our members, our friends, and from anyone who has an interest in seeing the commercial fishery survive and be able to continue to provide healthy fresh caught domestic seafood to American consumers.

For more information about this issue and what we are trying to do about it, you can read more here.

If you want to join S.O.F.A. and help us in an ongoing fight for fair regulation of the commercial fishing industry please send us an email here for more information.