We have worked together with other fishery groups and many agencies, both state and federal, to keep the Gulf of Mexico clean and environmentally secure.

We have a long and productive history of working with Mote Marine Laboratory and other scientific groups.  We've helped Mote with their tagging program for many years and have given them help over the years in many other programs.  We have helped sponsor and taken part in many tournaments over the years.  We have promoted our own fishermen locally at Seafood Festivals and other events.

We have fought legal battles over the years and were instrumental in bringing about a successful lawsuit that managed to keep the shark fleet working in the Gulf of Mexico for a number of years after the original attempts by extremists to shut down that fishery.

We have lobbyists working in Washington and Tallahassee to promote our cause and try to help give us a louder voice in those places.  Our officers, our Director and our members regularly travel all over the southeast to attend the myriad of public hearings that the various State and Federal agencies hold --and then seemingly ignore-- before passing any new legislation.   It is tiresome and tiring, it is full time work that is often frustrating, and it is always expensive.

Our Director, Bobby Spaeth, grew up on Madeira Beach, grouper and grouper fishing have always been a part of his life.  He was a working commercial fisherman in his younger days, crewing and then captaining on various commercial grouper boats.  For the last 25 years Bob has dedicated immense amounts of time and not an inconsiderable amount of his own money, to pursue the goals of S.O.F.A. and work for the commercial fishermen.  He has travelled to Washington and Tallahassee and from New Orleans to Key West many times and has spoken before our legislators and presented our case in person to them on multiple occassions.  In 1999, recognizing that things were going badly for commercial fishermen, Bobby said, in testimony presented to the members of the US Senate Commerce Committee:

"In a few words, it is past time for Congress to halt the cumulative destruction of the US commercial fishing industry by actions and policies of the National Marine Fisheries Service."

Some three years later,  Bobby said in response to yet another lawsuit brought by the deep pocketed Ocean Conservancy in 2002,

"We're disappointed that these foundation-funded litigation machines keep running to court to try to stop what the law requires - use of the best scientific and economic information available."

In 2008 we came together with recreational groups and urged and then helped implement the founding of the Gulf Partnership for Marine Fisheries to promote science and education in the hopes of better informing the public and the regulators about the condition of the Gulf fisheries and to help provide more realistic data that could hopefully lead to more realistic regulatory goals.

And on it goes.....