As sparkling as the Coastal Conservation Association’s role was in helping us remove gillnets from the state waters of Texas and Florida the CCA’s ability to stay the course on their mission of conservation and protection of marine life has been hampered by politics.

Instead of working the middle ground, giving its membership the simple facts and working hand-in-hand with federal fisheries management to create sensible solutions to the serious problems facing recreational anglers, the CCA uses mass emails driving a single-vision opinionated message to fan partisan flames and stimulate division. Let’s hope one day soon the CCA can return to a leadership role in conservation.

Over 16,000 genetic samples of tarpon by recreational and charter captains have been taken during Florida’s Tarpon Genetic Recapture Study. One of these tarpon have been caught, genetically sampled and released on three different occasions! Updated figures indicate that about one of every 100 tarpon genetically sampled is a recapture.  Learn more about this interactive program by reading the Tarpon Newsletter [http://www.myfwc.com/research/saltwater/tarpon/genetics/newsletter/]

 Don Hammond and his Dolphinfish Research Program has helped hundreds of recreational anglers get more involved with collecting important fisheries data on one of the world’s most sought after recreational and commercial fish, dolphin.

To learn more about this interactive program, visit: dolphintagging.com