2021 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients Announced
We at The Billfish Foundation are pleased to announced the winners of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Awards. The award is named in honor of a former board member and pioneer in billfish conservation, who founded the Sailfish Conservation Club, the Masters Angling Tournament, the Tournament of Champions and the Gold Cup to raise funds for conservation. With his brothers, Emil and Tommy, the family business developed the first offshore sportfishing boat equipped with a tower, outriggers, fighting chair, transom door and big engines. This year’s recipient: JOHN BROWNLEE is a former TBF board member having served as
Tag & Release Competition Update
Listed below are the top 5 captains and anglers in each category for The Billfish Foundation’s Tag & Release Competition as of September 10, 2021. This is the final rankings update before the competition ends. If a category is missing, it’s because there haven’t been enough fish to qualify. The competition runs through October 31, 2021 and all entries must be in by November 15, 2021. Please remember that you are only eligible to receive an award if you are an active member of The Billfish Foundation. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. To purchase
One More Federal Dismissal of Billfish
Traditional tagging of billfish for science produce very valuable data, especially with TBF’s and the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) tagging databases spanning decades. In turn, the data helps support some management strategies that can help recreational fishing. The large databases reflect the contributions over decades of anglers, captains and crews, who deployed tags and reported their release data and data for a recaptured tagged billfish. A majority of what is known about billfish stems from the traditional tagging data resources. So supporting the billfish tagging program should be a priority for NMFS, NOT SO. The NMFS
NOAA Increases Shark Retention Limits in the Gulf of Mexico
NOAA Fisheries increased the retention limits of large sharks in the Gulf of Mexico through the end of 2021. As of August 24th, fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico who operate under Shark Directed Limit Access Permits may retain up to 55 large coastal sharks per vessel per trip. Large coastal sharks (LCS) do not include sandbar sharks, but do include hammerhead and blacktips. This change increases retention from the previous limit of 45 LCS by an additional 10 per vessel per trip. In the Eastern Gulf of Mexico sub-region, this increase applies to sharks within the LCS, hammerhead
TBF Attends ICAST 2021
For the first time in over a year, the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades (ICAST) was held in Orlando, FL. This trade show brought the fishing community together and allowed everyone to see new products and meet with representatives from over hundreds of fishing related companies. Thousands of attendees from were present at the international trade show and this marked one of the first large trade shows held at the Orlando Convention Center since the pandemic began in 2020. The latest edition of the show highlighted some of the current products and technology as well as introducing new
Atlantic Bluefin Quota Transfer and Seasonal Closure
As of 11:30pm on August 4th, 2021, fishing via the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna General Category is closed. NOAA Fisheries announced the closure because the 277.9 mt subquota for June through August has been reached. The fishery will reopen on September 1st, 2021. Once reopened, fishermen with the correct permits may retain one fish per vessel per day. The closure affects: NOAA Fisheries is transferring 30mt of bluefin tuna from the Reserve Category to the Harpoon Category. The transfer increases the Harpoon quota to 78mt and leaves 138mt in Reserve. The transfer is in effect through November 15th, 2021 (or
Where Has TBF Been In 2021?
With travel opening up, the TBF Team hit the road (or, more accurately, the water) to promote conservation. It’s our goal to be everywhere the action happens, representing billfish conservation and advocating for the recreational fishing community. Here’s where we’ve been so far this year!
With all of our travel, plus our work in advocating for responsible fisheries management, managing our Tag & Release Program, creating youth education materials, and more, 2021 is shaping up to be an exciting year for TBF! Make sure you get involved by becoming
Is the US West Coast Going From Drift Gill Nets to Longlines?!?
This month the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) accepted applications for Exempted Fishing Permits (EFP) for which decisions will be made in September for the following fishing year. One application proposes to transition the current swordfish drift gillnet fishery to a longline fishery by allowing 19 longline vessels, shallow-set and deep-set longlines, to fish between 12 to 200 miles in federal waters off the U.S. West Coast, which TBF does not endorse this gear. Nine other permit applications were submitted, including Deep-Set Buoy Gear, Linked Buoy Gear, Night Set Buoy Gear including fishing in state waters, and Mid-Water
Reallocation of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna for Angling Category
The current proposed Amendment 13 to the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan may reallocate the U.S. Atlantic quota share of Bluefin Tuna among Fishing Categories (Angling, Longline, General, Purse Seine, Trap, Reserve). The Purse Seine category is being abolished and its tonnage reallocated since those vessels have landed any bluefin since 2015, due to regulatory size restraints, but their tonnage was leased to Longline Category vessels. The redistribution will result in slight increases in the Angling Category now spread over 4 sub-allocation areas instead of 3 with the division of the Northern area into two areas
2020 Conservation Record: Blue Marlin
The Billfish Foundation maintains the largest private tag and release database in the world, with 260,000 records by 150,000 anglers. In 2020 alone, TBF anglers and captains tagged, released, or recaptured 7,000 billfish and tuna across the world. Of these 7,000 new records, 1,263 were of blue marlin. Like with sailfish, there is some debate on the difference between Atlantic and Indo-Pacific blue marlin. Makaira nigricans refers to Atlantic blue marlin, while Makaira mazara are Indo-Pacific. Blue marlin can measure up to 2,000lbs and 12ft long. Like other species of billfish, the Indo-Pacific blue marlin tend to be larger
