Look who’s got the clams.
The Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage netted approximately $85,000 from the 40th annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival Feb. 19-20.
At a March 7 meeting at Fishermen’s Hall in Cortez, members of the nonprofit’s board unanimously voted to use $12,000 of the proceeds for an advance mortgage payment.
FISH recently combined mortgages on the former LeMasters’ property — three parcels of land within the 100-acre nature preserve the nonprofit has been restoring since 2005 — and Fishermen’s Hall, 4515 124th St. W., Cortez, a meeting place and former church.
FISH can pay off the mortgage in seven years if the organization contributes an additional $1,000 to its $1,300 monthly payments, FISH treasurer Jane von Hahmann told The Islander March 8.
“It feels good to have the promise already taken care of, of doing $1,000 additional a month. We said that was our goal for the year and we just accomplished our goal,” she said.
This year’s proceeds rank second on the all-time festival revenue list — the organization brought in about $90,000 in 2016.
Due to the pandemic, FISH did not hold a festival, its primary fundraiser, in 2021.
The 2022 celebration put the nonprofit, dedicated to maintaining Cortez’s commercial fishing legacy, in a better place financially, von Hahmann said.
“It just made us feel like we’re back again. Because the last two years, not knowing what was going to happen and not getting to have 2021, really impacted us. We got our savings back to where it was and we still can pay against our mortgage. It’s just exciting to know that, from a financial standpoint, we’re very much on solid ground,” she said.
About 15,000 people attended the festival — 2,000 shy of the celebration’s 2016 attendance record — and spent approximately $184,000 on food and beverage tickets, $56,000 on gate donations and $26,130 on T-shirts and posters.
Fishers fill the hall
Four candidates will pursue four open seats on the FISH board at the membership meeting April 25:
- Karen Bell, owner of A.P. Bell Fish Co., Star Fish restaurant and co-owner of Tide Tables Restaurant;
- Pat Potts, treasurer of the Cortez Village Historical Society;
- Lance Plowman, a charter fishing captain and owner of Florida Fishing Fleet charters;
- Nathan Meschelle, a commercial fishing captain, owner of Inseine Fish Harvest and president of the Cortez chapter of the Organized Fishermen of Florida.
If Bell, Plowman and Meschelle are elected, five members — including commercial fisher Tim Caniff and Cortez Bait and Seafood vice president Kim McVey — of the organization’s 11-member board will rely on fishing for a living.
The next board meeting will be 7 p.m. Monday, April 4, at Fishermen’s Hall in Cortez.
For more, call 941-301-4000.