The Southern Offshore Fishing Association and the Fishing Rights Alliance have created The Gulf Partnership for Marine Fisheries.

The Gulf Partnership was created to support the scientific needs of the recreational fishing and commercial fishing community and fishery dependant businesses.

• The Gulf Partnership will provide to NMFS scientific review and evaluation of marine resources, engage in research and provide information useful to fishing communities in their understanding of the fisheries. The Gulf Partnership's scientists will work to evaluate and define the best available science possible for use by NMFS in managing sustainable fisheries in an ecosystem-friendly manner. The Gulf Partnership will also solicit input from both recreational fishing groups and commercial fishing organizations, seeking to provide more accurate data by way of input from those who see firsthand what the situation in the Gulf of Mexico really is.
• Science for Fishing: The partnership will engage fisheries experts to evaluate NMFS stock assessments and proposed regulations. We will employ economists to evaluate the economic impact of existing or proposed regulations on the commercial and recreational fishermen and related industries.
• Science for Fishing: The partnership has hired Dr. Trevor Kenchington to review the Gag Grouper assessment and help us to try and improve the quality of science for fishing. The Gulf Council postponed implementing the proposed Gag regulations until a review of Dr. Kenchington's observations can be completed by their scientific advisory committee. FRA and SOFA were able to provide support for the Council's decision to review the information. The more science for fishing we can help provide, the more education we can provide, the better our government agencies will understand our fisheries.
• Fishing For Science: We have a number of programs in the pipeline to encourage fishing for science. We have a tagging program in the works. We hope to sponsor a tournament in the near future in the name of fishing for science. The more participants we can get fishing for science, the better the scientific input will be for our management personell.

Who We Are: S.O.F.A.

The Southern Offshore Fishing Association is a 30 year old organization originally founded in Madeira Beach Florida to promote the products of the commercial fishery, primarily the fishery of the Gulf of Mexico, and the education of the consumers about our products. Our initial focus was that of a consumer awareness group. Our initial intent was to inform the public about fresh Florida Seafood being produced by Gulf of Mexico fishermen and to protect or improve the public perception of both the fishermen and their product. SOFA enjoyed much success in this endeavor and spent a number of years being primarily a social club but always keeping the interests of the fishermen and education of the public about our fishery at the top of our agenda. Over the past decades we have found ourselves increasingly becoming a fisheries advocacy group and now find ourselves engaged in nothing less than a fight for the survival of our way of life.

S.O.F.A. has never advocated a fishery without regulation. We have a long history of associating with Mote Marine Lab and other scientific groups. We have tried to help bring good solid data and good science to the forefront of the attempts to regulate the fisheries. Our hope has been that a fishery regulated by good science and with an honest agenda of helping to keep the fishery viable and healthy will continue to be a healthy fishery and can be a way of life for future generations of American fishermen. Unfortunately, many people who currently have the ear of the regulatory agencies favor shutting down fisheries in a pre-emptive manner any time a cry of "save the fishes" is raised with or without any good scientific basis. SOFA hopes that by helping form the Gulf Partnership, we will be able to stem the rising tide of over-regulation by introducing a firm demand that our fisheries and our way of life be regulated by good solid science, not anti-fishing propaganda promulgated by either misinformed or misguided individuals and associations. We believe that if we engage our membership in this effort by fishing for science, we can help provide information that will lead to better and more efficient regulation of the fisheries while still allowing our fisheries to be healthy and productive, both for our fishermen and our fish.

Who We Are: F.R.A.

The Fishing Rights Alliance, FRA, advocates the sustainable use of and access to marine fisheries. The FRA promotes reasonable and effective fisheries management policies primarily through community and political activism and user group interaction with the scientific community and the various regulatory agencies.

The FRA also endeavors to inform and educate the membership and general public about issues concerning access to marine resources. The FRA will actively defend the right to access.

The FRA acts to assure that fishery regulation is based on sound scientific methods using valid data and an accurate picture of the fishery.

The FRA will stand up and fight to protect your fishing rights.

Our Corporate Status

The Gulf Partnership for Marine Fisheries was founded and established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. This limits the amount of political activism and advocacy work we can do but establishes us as an organization founded to educate the public about the issues. Our intent is to fund as much in the way of scientific research and scientific observation as possible, in order to expand the base of good science that our government agencies have to work with in order to bring some sort of sanity to the regulatory process. We include information about our founding groups solely to let the public know just who we are. Any donations to this organization will be used solely to fund the educational efforts of the Gulf Partnership and not for any work involving any of our founding or supporting organizations. There is a good article here about the limitations our organizational structure places on us as far as political activism goes and we hope that any members or supporters of our founding or supporting organizations who would like to see us taking stronger or more political stands on particular issues, legislation or even elections, will read that article and understand how and why we are working the way we are. We seek to effect change, but we are hoping to do it within the system by bringing good solid science into a process where we feel it has been lacking.