TBF joined many other recreational fishing organizations in calling on House Subcommittee on Energy and Water to approve $210 million dollars for the Army Corps of Engineers in support of…
The Paxson H. Offield Lifetime Science Achievement Award The award is named in honor of a former TBF board member, who believed passionately in the value of science to support…
The table below provides the total number of billfish (January 1, 2018, through, December 31, 2018) landings in numbers of fish for Atlantic blue and white marlin, roundscale spearfish, and…
NOAA Fisheries determined that the Angling category southern area “trophy” bluefin tuna (measuring 73 inches or greater) subquota of 1.8 mt had been reached and exceeded and therefore closure of…
If you are captured by the passion, suspense and drama in the HBO Fantasy Series, Game of Thrones, step into that drama, costumed, on November 1, 2019, at the Harbor…
The Proposed Okaloosa County (north central Gulf of Mexico) recreational fishing Buoy/Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) System was approved as a means to improve catches of billfish and other species. The…
The Billfish Foundation recently submitted comments again to The South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council regarding the future management of a dolphin (mahi mahi) and wahoo fishery. The Amendment looks to…
Over 30 award winners from all over the world came to be recognized as some of the top anglers, captains and mates for tagging and releasing the most billfish in…
The Billfish Foundation was honored to be a part of Costa Sunglasses’ Conservation Village, within the Miami Boat Show this year. The venue provided the platform for many conservation organizations,…
The 3rd Raising Bills hosted by Kirsten and David Salazar of Casa Vieja Lodge (CVL), a TBF Tagging & Release Program sponsor, was a huge success in raising bill$ for…
WELCOME ABOARD! The Billfish Foundation is proud to announce the new Winthrop P. Rockefeller Student Ocean Program Interns for Spring 2019. This initiative carries on Win’s vision of responsible ocean…
Could China’s heavy financial investments in and aid to Panama along with the 47 recent trade agreements between the two nations possibly lead to a diminishment of Pacific fish stock…
The Billfish Foundation (TBF) is excited to announce the International Game Fish Tournament Observers (IGFTO) as a new Tag & Release Industry level sponsor. IGFTO support of our cornerstone program makes sense.…
Photo courtesy of Trey Russo/Miles Charlesworth The Billfish Foundation (TBF) is looking for anglers and crews interested in tagging tuna in the Northern Atlantic. TBF is working with scientists from…
Overall Award trophies Each year The Billfish Foundation recognizes the best of the best in the billfishing community to acknowledge the significant effort they contribute to our Tag & Release…
T-H Marine Joins The Billfish Foundation as Tag and Release Program Sponsor Fort Lauderdale, FL – January 9, 2019 – T-H Marine Supplies, Inc., of Huntsville, Alabama, announces it has…
Courtesy of Jasen Gast – Rehab The Modern Fish Act (MFA), signed into law at the end of 2018, is to improve recreational fishing landings data, increase allocation of fish…
How many blue marlin are in the ocean? Counting them isn’t exactly feasible (though you could have fun trying!) so scientists rely on catches and how much effort these catches…
A nice yellowfin tuna caught off Panama Recreational fishing in Panama and throughout Central America is likely to feel negative impacts from a fishery partnership between Panama and China established…
Fly Navarro and Adrienne Katz with a nice mahi-mahi The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) is considering management options to Amendment 10 on the Dolphin Wahoo Fishery Management Plan. The…
Beginning January 1, 2019, all Atlantic highly migratory species tournaments will be required to submit catch summaries. An Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS) tournament is a tournament that awards points…
Deep-set buoy gear finally has management alternatives for use in a swordfish fishery off southern California, where the fishery will be a limited entry to approximately 300 commercial vessels. Once…
Illustration courtesy of DRNEC of Delaware Chub mackerel, which are important prey species for billfish and other apex predators and to the healthy functioning of the ecosystem, are being considered…
What a night it was with Austin Powers and his entire cast of characters partying with other TBF friends at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort! Yeah Baby!!!! They shagged and…
Because overfished Atlantic marlin receive no government research funding priority, large data gaps relating to their life history characteristics remain. Satellite tagging provides a means to fill some of the…
The Pacific Fishery Management Counsel is proposing to authorize the use of shallow-set longline gear to fish for swordfish off the West Coast of the United States. Below are the…
NOAA is considering an amendment to the current Fishery Management Plan for Coral and Coral Reef Resources in Gulf of Mexico. The amendment establishes new and modifies existing habitat areas…
NOAA Fisheries has released updated compliance guides for recreational fishing of highly migratory species in the Atlantic Ocean. These guides include detailed anatomical figures, identification charts, and species-specific bag limits,…
As of 11:30pm on October 13th, 2019, the general category Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery has closed. This closure will persist through November, which signifies the end of the current subquota…
NOAA fisheries announced third quarter landing updates for bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna, northern albacore, and swordfish. These landings include all fish landed commercially and recreationally by…
In July, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) drafted a proposal to create a recreational limit for blackfin tuna in Florida and the surrounding federal waters. In it’s…
The Billfish Foundation is encouraged by the comments made by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) regarding the proposed actions of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS). As…
As promised, below are TBF’s final comments for the NMFS initiative that will potentially decimate billfish populations and harm the recreational fishing community. As a reminder, the new NMFS proposal…
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing initiatives that once again ignore the recreational fishing community and do not benefit billfish conservation. NMFS seeks to reinvigorate commercial catch by…
The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission recently announced new requirements for fisheries targeting tuna in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). These new regulations intend to reduce sea turtle bycatch but have…
A new TBF-supported study out of the University of Miami made great strides in understanding the relationship between age and growth of Atlantic blue marlin. The study examined growth annuli…
NOAA Fisheries announced new 2019 baseline quotas for North Atlantic albacore tuna, North and South Atlantic swordfish, and Atlantic bluefin tuna (reserve category). These updates come as a result of…
Earlier last week, NOAA Fisheries announced that they are considering changes to the 2006 Consolidated HMS Fishery Management Plan and we will be monitoring and reviewing this further and providing…
As of August 20th, NOAA Fisheries finished compiling the second quarter updates for reported billfish (marlin, sailfish, and spearfish) and swordfish landings in the Atlantic. These landings include all billfish…
Just two days after the Harpoon category closure, NOAA Fisheries Highly Migratory Species Department has announced the closure of the General category for Atlantic bluefin tuna. As of 11:30pm on…
NOAA Fisheries Highly Migratory Species Department announced today the closure of the Harpoon category for Atlantic bluefin tuna due to the 91 metric ton quota being met. This closure comes…
Fifteen metric tons of Atlantic bluefin tuna quota was transferred from the Reserve Category to the Harpoon Category, bringing the total tonnage for the category to 91 metric tons and…
The first action plan from National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is a proposed Amendment 13 for Atlantic Bluefin Tuna that included a tremendous array of options to modify how Atlantic…
TBF’s most recent satellite tagging expedition kicked off with a fantastic crowd all interested in learning more about blue marlin in the Gulf of Mexico and how to help with…
The Billfish Foundation is currently engaging in a research project with Atlantic Ocean Tropical Tuna Tagging Program (AOTTP) in order to further the knowledge around lifecycles of yellowfin, bigeye, and…
NMFS proposes to modify the one-month closed zone off New Jersey and the spring two-month gear restricted area in the Gulf of Mexico to become Monitoring Zones with an annual…
Amendment 13 to the Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan proposes many options striving to maximize utilization of the U.S. bluefin quota. Half of the options propose changes to the…
The June 2019 assessment of white marlin’s relative abundance remaining in the water offered mixed results, “overfishing” had stopped, but the authorized catch limit is still being exceeded. So management…
For years, we have all heard about the amazing fishery and waters in Magdalena Bay, Mexico. From the hookups of doubles, triples, and quads of striped marlin with daily releases…
Western & Central Northern Pacific striped marlin, whose abundance, especially spawning-stock biomass, and size are greatly diminished and retain low priority within the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).…
The proposed sale is part of the leasing project announced by the DOI in 2021 to meet the Biden administration’s goal to deploy thirty gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity…
Last week, the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) released the 2023 Economic Contributions of Recreational Fishing: U.S. Congressional Districts report, an update of previous data in partnership with Southwick Associates. The…
NOAA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) are collaborating on a 5-year project to “evaluate the feasibility of bycatch hotspots” via communication networks in the Gulf of Mexico.…
A Step in the Right Direction for Sailfish in Costa Rica If you’re expecting to come across sailfish meat in the Costa Rican Canasta Basica, then you’re unfortunately going to…
Since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, a group of federal representatives have continued to assess and develop recovery strategies for injured…
As reported recently in the Tico Times, a new Costa Rican tuna law requires all purse seine vessels (none of which are owned by Costa Rican interests) to fish outside of…
The following was released by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Group and the Large Pelagics Research Center: The most comprehensive effort to date to characterize striped marlin (Kajikia audax) movements in the Central North…
Over the years, Dr. C. Phillip Goodyear, TBF’s billfish scientist has developed “species distribution models” for highly migratory species that estimate time-varying, three-dimensional distribution of habitat. These models are useful…
Countries are robbed of an estimated $26-50 billion annually due to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU). IUU fishing is defined as any fishing operations outside of current regulations…
In March of this year, the 1st Circle Hook Workshop of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) commenced. The goal was to analyze “scientific information regarding different circle hooks sizes…
Sportfishing Banned in Colombia – Beginning in 2023 The Supreme Court of Colombia recently ruled that sportfishing, even catch and release, amounts to torture, thus prohibiting the sport in marine…
After 11:30 p.m., May 17, 2022, fishermen aboard Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Angling or HMS Charter/Headboat permitted vessels may not retain, possess, or land large medium or giant Atlantic…
The NMFS has achieved predator-rich relationships with sharks and other species beyond what some scientists describe as “equilibrium.” The result is heavy shark predation of other fish stocks important to…
The member nations, including the U.S., of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the international treaty fishery management organization for Atlantic highly migratory species, approved a…
With the recent Executive Order (EO), recreational fishing gear, bottom trawls, and pelagic longline are viewed the same as all other fishing gear when it comes to designating Marine Protected…
TBF's Winthrop P. Rockefeller's Student Ocean Intern Program awards students who support billfish conservation and believe in responsible fisheries management.
TBF Responds to New Pacific Fishery Management Council Initiative