CHANGE OF SEASONS
WEST MELBOURNE  OFFICE TAKES LEAD AS MIAMI CLOSES

October 03, 2007

Wow, what a great fishing year it was. Plus, no major hurricane damage. This year our clients (you) won 331 different categories in 109 major tournaments while using ROFFS™ Fishing Forecasting Analyses as reported to us.  We are sure that there are additional prize winning efforts that have yet to be reported to us. Our 16-year tally has reached 3797 winners!

Overall, we were able to fulfill 88% of all requests for analyses this year. Some areas had a completion rate in the 94-97% range. This is 4% lower than last year’s record performance, but still an amazing feat by our team of satellite fisheries oceanographers. This was accomplished, in part, to our use of as many ocean sensing satellites as possible including all the functioning NOAA infrared satellite data (NOAA_15, 16, 17, 18), as well as, the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites (infrared and visible ocean color-chlorophyll + dissolved colored organic matter or so-called “plankton satellite”). Unfortunately, NOAA_12 and NOAA_14 stopped working this summer. This may have contributed to the small decrease in fulfillment. However, if we had removed the cloud notes that happened during the Mid-Atlantic 500,000 tournament off New Jersey in August, our fulfillment percent would have been 91% overall.

With the abundance of these and other satellite data we are better able to visualize and understand the ocean circulation and water mass boundary features related to fish distribution and catch success. This allows us to continue providing our unique and superior detailed fishing oceanographic analysis, although it is a time intensive process.  We will continue to develop state-of-the-science customized tools and techniques in our never tiring attempt to provide more accurate, precise, and reliable analyses.

MANY MULTI-TOURNAMENT WINNERS AGAIN

The ROFFS™ Tournament Winners list is enclosed. Note that during the 2007 season we had clients win top honors in the multiple tournament North Carolina Governor’s Cup Series and South Carolina Governor’s Cup. We also had several winners in club seasonal tournaments including the Ocean City (MD) Marlin Club, Cape May (NJ) Marlin and Tuna Club, Northeast Marlin Association (FL), Pensacola (FL) Big Game Fishing Club, Mobile Big Game Fishing Club, Houston Big Game Fishing Club, Corpus Christi Big Game Fishing Club, and the South Texas Big Game Fishing Club.

OFFICE NEWS

Everything changes and we are moving our main operations to our West Melbourne, FL office during the last two weeks of November. The Miami office will be closed. While we are happy to move, we are saddened to note that Jeanne Farrell, our fantastic Office Manager for more than a decade, has decided to retire. While she will be missed for many reasons, we will be hiring all new administrative staff. Please help them to be as good or better than our present excellent staff. We are aware that moving and changing staff will be a great challenge. Please bear with us during this transition period. I am sure we will overcome all challenges with your help. Please note the new address and contact information. The office is just a relatively short distance from the NASA facility at the Kennedy Space Flight Center on Cape Canaveral. This has already facilitated the production of new products, projects, and partnerships with other companies, universities, and agencies on the Space Coast.

While we instituted many changes to our web site (www.roffs.com), we did not finalize our pay-per-view web store as we had originally planned. We simply had too much complicated accounting and programming to accomplish this with our varied plans and payment schedules as they had existed. To synchronize the databases we had to modernize and automate our billing procedures which unfortunately makes our accounting structure less flexible. While the ROFFS™ web store for ordering and receiving fishing forecasting analyses will be beneficial to many, for others it may not be. For example we must strictly follow the contract for the Seasonal Discount Plans which as written on your contracts (for the last 10 or more years) that you have signed states “Under the discounted seasonal plans, all analyses must be ordered before the end of the 2007 discount season (Oct. 05, 2007). Analyses ordered during the period of Oct. 8, 2007 and February 28, 2008 will be charged at the non-discounted, full price rate. Credit will be given,  if ROFFS™ cannot provide a reliable analysis due to atmospheric conditions (e.g. clouds, high atmospheric moisture, haze, fog) or cannot provide analyses due to satellite failure or other unforeseen factors.” This clearly means and has been explained many times that there will not be carry over analyses from one discount season to the next except for cloud notes.

We are already working on improving our background charts for the 2008 season. Please provide additional comments on charts, areas, and products you would like to see. Please communicate your ideas on this and other issues. We are developing new products that integrate new oceanographic data derived from public and private sources into our fishing forecasting analyses.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, BOAT SHOWS, AND SEMINARS

ROFFS™ remains active in the scientific community and we will continue our research efforts and participate on the NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Modeling Science Team, as well as, the NASA Ocean Color Science Team. In 2008 we will be exhibiting again at the Atlantic City (NJ) International Powerboat Show Feb. 06-10 (booth #319). We will be exhibiting at the Miami (FL) International Boat Show Feb. 14 – 18 (booth #M-50). I will also be a National Team Instructor for the Saltwater Sportsman Magazine National Seminar Series for the following shows: New Bern, NC, Monmouth, NJ, Islamorada, FL, Savannah, GA, Titusville, FL, West Islip, NY, and Mobile, AL.

Also, I am available to provide customized scientific seminars on a variety of subjects (fish biology, oceanography, satellite remote sensing, etc.) to fishing clubs, bait & tackle shops, and marinas so please call.