New Permits Open Up New State Waters
The Army Corps of Engineers just notified the City of Mexico Beach of new permits that will open more state waters to reef building off the Florida Panhandle.  The name of these sites are Crooked Island and Sherman located due west of our Car Body site (red rectangles in the map above).  They extend all the way out to the end of our state water boundary (9 nautical miles) giving us opportunit to deploy more reefs at depths of 60-85 feet.  MBARA board of directors planned, negotiated, and worked on obtaining these sites for over 2 years.  We expect placement of our first reefs in these sites in 2017 with an annual FWC grant application that will be due in March 2016.     

New Grant for $1,374,185.28 for Reefs 
The City of Mexico Beach was just awarded $1,374,185.28 for artificial reef building under the NRDA Phase III Early Restoration Artificial Reef Project out of the BP penalty monies awarded to Florida.  Since late 2010, the MBARA has been diligently diligently planning and competing to obtain these funds for continuous development of fish habitat in the Gulf of Mexico.   We targeted development of our Bell Shoals Site because it best suited the "multiuse" criteria for fishing, snorkeling, diving, boating, and kayaking leading to succesful award.  We hope to accomplish placement of new reefs in late 2015.  This project will also allow the MBARA to focus more funding on our new and older offshore sites from future fundraising efforts.  This is truly a great day for the MBARA and the City of Mexico Beach.   

New Light Blue Kingfish Tournament T-shirt Here 
The new kingfish tournament shirt is here and you can pick one up at Gulf Foods, Shell Shack, and Beachwalk Clothing in Mexico Beach, and  Half Hitch  and Bluewater Outriggers in Port St. Joe.  It is a new color and it is one of our best looking shirts ever.   Check out our online store and order it online. 

11th Annual Offshore Classic on July 24-25
The next big tournament is a two day offshore tournament featuring wahoo, dolphin, and king mackerel.  Prizes are paid out in each division at $1500 for 1st, $500 for second, and $250 for third.  The grand prize winner gets $2500.  Register at Mexico Beach Marina for $200 before July 1st.  Go to www.MexicoBeachMarina.com for more information. 

New Seafood Cookbook Coming-We Need Recipes
The first edition of the MBARA Cookbook has sold over 10,000 copies, and now we are doing a second edition with new recipes.   Sally Childs helped put the first edition together and now we need recipes for a second edition.   Send her your seafood recipes to Sally Childs, P. O. Box 13470, Mexico Beach, FLA 32410, or e-mail to her at Sally@gtcom.net.  We are putting in deserts this year as well.