Living Legends of Big Game Fishing by Pat Mansell
Author Pat Mansell announced this month that he is writing a second edition of Living Legends of Big Game Fishing to be published by the end of 2025. The new edition includes among others, TBF’s President Ellen Peel, TBF Board Member Charles “Fin” Gaddy and former TBF Board Member Joan Vernon. Mansell is known for […]
TBF Attends ICAST 2024
Every summer, fishermen and angling enthusiasts from around the world gather in Orlando, Florida for the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades (ICAST). As the world’s largest sportfishing tradeshow, ICAST features a vast array of vendors showcasing the latest in fishing technology, gear, apparel, and more. For The Billfish Foundation (TBF), ICAST is not just […]
Sailfish Satellite Tagging in Palm Beach
On March 13th, TBF’s Peter Chaibongsai and TJ Morrell met up with the crews, and research team in Singer Island, Florida to discuss logistics for the upcoming satellite tagging trip. The goal: satellite tag Atlantic sailfish over the next two days. With only a few instances of Atlantic sailfish being satellite tagged here in South […]
Sailfish Conservation Record 2019
The Billfish Foundation maintains the largest private tag and release database in the world, with over 260,000 records. In 2019 alone, over 11,000 new tag, release, and recapture records were added to this database, representing an enormous amount of data to help us learn more about billfish life history. Of these over 11,000 new records in 2019, 5,280 were of sailfish, including an incredible 34 sailfish recaptures. 73.6% of sailfish were released without tags, while 26.4% were tagged. To learn more about how to identify a sailfish, check out our youtube channel! An incredible 1,385 sailfish were tagged
Help Keep Pelagic Longlines OUT of Closed Zones
The U.S. pelagic longline closed zones and gear restricted areas were established to reduce bycatch of juvenile swordfish by protecting nursery grounds, overfished marlin, sailfish, which remain overfished, large coastal sharks (some remain overfished), marine mammals and loggerhead (“Threatened” under the Endangered Species Act) and leatherback sea turtles (Endangered under the ESA). At the time the U.S. fleet was not landing its swordfish quota, rather it was catching 80% of the Atlantic-wide undersize swordfish, reported as dead discards until international management decided that practice had to stop by 2004. Authorizing pelagic longline vessels back into juvenile swordfish nursery areas
Assessing Florida’s Sailfish Population
Management of sailfish in the Atlantic Ocean falls under the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), which is responsible for tuna and associated species like billfish. The first official stock assessment for Atlantic sailfish was completed by this management body in 2009, and identified two separate stocks: the eastern and western. In Florida, anglers interact with the western Atlantic sailfish stock, which was found to be overfished and likely undergoing overfishing. The most recent assessment, done in 2016, states that both sailfish stocks of the Atlantic Ocean suffered the greatest declines in abundance prior
Scientist Seeks to Advance Longline Research
NOVA Southeastern University Scientist and assistant professor, David W. Kerstetter, who received a federal Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) in 2017 to conduct longline research in Florida’s east coast closed zone, has submitted an application for a new EFP, but this time without including the university. In 2017, Dr. George L. Hanbury, NSU’s president, halted Kerstetter’s project when advised by TBF of the negative impacts the project could cast on the institution’s science and community relations credibility. Following that decision, on November 21, 2017, Kerstetter filed papers of incorporation for – Florida Fisheries Solution, LLC. – in whose name the
YOUTH FISHING CLINIC WITH KEY BISCAYNE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
Do you remember the first time you tied your first knot or caught your first fish? On April 7th 2013, young people and their parents did just that with the Key Biscayne Community Foundation (KBCF) Citizen Scientist Project at Bill Baggs State Park in Key Biscayne, Florida. Multiple stations were set up for the kids with the goal of creating ethical anglers by teaching the basics of sportfishing and by educating them on their local environment.
