The Friends of St. Andrew Bay (FSAB) will host a seminar on billfish on July 18, at 6:30 p.m., in the Student Union East Conference Center at Gulf Coast Community College. The seminar is free and open to the public.
Scott Burt will report on the Bay Point Billfish Tournament, which will have just completed its 2007 running. Mr. Burt will also talk about the direction the tournament will take in 2008, under the new ownership of St. Joe Company. Mr. Burt is managing member of Coastal Marina Management, a marina management and operations consulting company which manages Bay Point Marina. He was harbormaster at Bay Point for 23 years and was one of the founders of the Bay Point tournament.
Anna Avrigian of the National Marine Fisheries Service will turn the discussion to the big picture, providing an outline of billfish species and report on her work as coordinator of the Recreational Billfish Survey. She will provide a brief history of the program, what the survey entails and give examples of how the information collected is then used to further the goals of the National Marine Fisheries Service.