I'm playing hooky this week - sort of. For three days, i'm attending a pretty amazing event -- the fifth World Recreational Fishing Conference. Held every three years, the WRFC brings together scientists, managers, policy makers and others from all over. This conference, the first held in the United States, has attracted almost 200 serioius players from 22 different countries to the International Game Fish Association HQ in Dania Beach, Florida.

I thought I'd offer some brief highlights from this heavy-duty, unique conference each of the three days, starting here.

The boating and fishing industry in Florida scored a big win in the Nov. 4 elections.

By a margin of 70.5 percent, Floridians voted in favor of Amendment 6, effectively putting into motion action that could lower taxation rates on waterfront entities such as marinas, boatyards, public boat ramps and boat dealerships.

Just got back from the Fort Lauderdale Boat show and I have to say that I was very impressed by the number of folks in attendance. With all the economic gloom and doom bandied about lately, most folks at the show expected a disastrous turnout -- instead the crowds came and some of them were buying!

One of the coolest things I got to do was take a ride on a 40-foot Cabo with a pair of the new Zeus Drives coupled to a pair of Cummins diesel engines...

If you haven't seen the current issue of Sport Fishing magazine, you're missing the results of a pretty extensive survey conducted of 68 experts in sport fishing salt waters -- largely top skippers from around the U.S. and world -- to evaluate performance of 40 popular/highly sought game fish of offshore, nearshore and inshore waters.

I won't attempt to list all the results here, except to let you know the most highly rated species in each of those three categories: offshore - blue marlin, nearshore - dogtooth tuna, and inshore - tarpon.

The surging, astronomical leap in fuel prices has meant considerably less fishing effort. I mean -- no brainer, there, right?

Wrong. At least, according to federal fisheries statistics, recreational fishing trips in the Gulf of Mexico in July and August - when fuel prices were peaking at blistering levels and when marinas and charter ops around the Gulf were uniformly decrying the frightening decline in fishermen/effort - actually increased. In fact, the number of fishing trips into the Gulf reached their highest level since 2003 and the fourth highest level since 1981!

Several years ago, I wrote an editorial the title of which, if memory serves, was: "Gramps is Not a Factory Trawler." It made a simple point - the willy-nilly push by many environmental NGO's (non-governmental organizations) to simply shut down large areas of the ocean to ALL fishing failed to recognize vast differences between weekend anglers and big commercial fishing operations. That is, all fishing is not created equal.

If you fish - and if you're reading this, odds are you do - you rely heavily on that wispy piece of string connecting you to every fish you hook. The business of fishing lines is big business here and in Europe as well. But you might be hard pressed to believe the different approaches on measuring fishing lines taken by tackle industries in the two continents.

A couple things are on my mind today.

First, it's heartening to hear that the new government of Belize is very close to making possession of tarpon, bonefish and permit an illegal offense in their country. The Belizean Cabinet unanimously passed legislation that mandates a strict "catch-and-release" policy for these game fish. It is awaiting final sign-off, which is said to be nothing more than a formality.

This is great news for all anglers - and hopefully, it will spill over into other fisheries and regions where greater protection for our favorite fly-rodding species is needed.

We've got a whole lot going on here at Marlin with the magazine's issues starting to come back to back, the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show on the horizon and Marlin U's trip to Australia nearing. A lot of work and a lot of travel usually don't mix...but we'll manage somehow.

Peter Wright is already over in Australia, and I'm still waiting for my first report - he's either busy catching them like crazy or is stinking up the place and doesn't want me to know. I hope it's the former.

I suspect a lot of SF-site visitors will find this of interest. A skipper who has to be the world's most famous longliner ended up in handcuffs on the wrong side of a Canadian judge over the weekend for allegedly breaking (into) and entering that country's waters. Canadian fisheries officials maintain that when a patrol plane spotted her, Greenlaw's boat, Sea Hawk, had gone where no U.S. fishing boat was supposed to be. After that, Greenlaw (made famous in The Perfect Storm and with her own best-selling books including The Hungry Ocean) was summarily treated to an appearance in a St.