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Making Waves |
Aug/Sept 2012
SKA & RFA Working together to protect the future of recreational fishing! By Jack Holmes Managing Director, Southern Kingfish Association
The Southern Kingfish Association (SKA), founded in 1991, has grown into the largest saltwater tournament organization in the world with an average of fifty competition events held each year from Louisiana to North Carolina. After the first couple of years we knew that the organization was going to become huge even though most people held this great gamefish in low esteem. We knew otherwise.
ended quickly as we developed a “one fish per day, per team� weighin policy that encouraged all smaller fish to be released. Fish that were weighed were being sold to local fish houses after weigh-in with the money earned donated to local charities, which negated any waste of an important resource, a format still in use today. The SKA has raised millions of dollars over the years for many worthwhile causes.
In the early days we found many events we either sanctioned or produced were allowing too many dead fish to come to the dock. That
Along the way, the SKA has literally transformed the boating industry and popularized the high performance center console into the most
More than 200 competition boats staging for the start of the annual SKA National Championship.
sought-after saltwater fishing boat on the water. SKA anglers demanded faster, more seaworthy boats with greater range equipped with a full spate of fishing features, more advanced electronics and at the same time drove the trailer industry to build the strongest, safest products in its history. All these advances pushed forward by SKA competitors are available to anglers everywhere. Up until 2008 the SKA was a $100 million industry unto itself benefiting the marine and tackle industries, tourism and more, but due to economic conditions over the past few years the economic clout has declined, but it still remains an economic powerhouse. Besides its economic clout, the SKA has been a leader in conservation and our efforts have been instrumental in helping increase king mackerel stocks to what we and some government agencies feel are record levels. We didn’t do it alone. We worked with anyone and everyone who was willing to get involved and that includes a large contingent of friends in the commercial fishing industry. Along the way we discovered that outside forces were blaming saltwater fishermen and women with the raping of marine resources. Extremely well financed environmental or-