A new journey for the New Florida Girl after regulations hammer iconic vessel (PHOTOS)

The day of the all-day fishing trip aboard the New Florida Girl is no more.

Instead the old boat, which is turning 40 this month, will have a new purpose on the water — to educate the youth of America.

With all the regulations on the books, “I’ve got to do something different — it’s time,” said Capt. Jim Westbrook of the party boat New Florida Girl, one of Destin’s oldest fishing vessels.

The Destin Fishing Rodeo in October was the New Florida Girls’ last hoorah.

“The next step is to get out of the fishing business because the government wants it closed,” Westbrook said. “It’s obvious. And they are doing more things to affect more people in our industry than they ever have.”

In 2009, the season for red snapper was cut in half, then cut again to less than three months. Then with less than two weeks to go in the annual fishing Rodeo, regulators took away the amberjack.

“I’m all for regulation. I’m not for elimination, but I’ve always been a regulation guy,” Westbrook said. “Why our government is so anti in this crisis economy to do this to a sector of its population by overregulation ... doesn’t make sense.”

A new chapter for an old boat
“The easiest thing to do would be to sell it. Get rid of it, take it to the Bahamas,” Westbrook said.

Capt. Westbrook said he has had offers of $220,000 for the boat.

“I could dump it into the Nassau economy, which it would be a great moneymaker,” he said, noting it would be used as a runner boat from the cruise ships to Paradise Island.

“I could walk easy. Eliminate it from the community and be done with it, and have a nice chunk of change in my pocket. That would be the easy way out,” he said.

“But I happen to think it’s a historical part of the community.”
Westbrook will be attempting to get the vessel listed in the United States historical archives for boats.

“We already know that my industry is on the brink of collapse, so I’m going to make an attempt to use the historical New Florida Girl for a totally different venue ... and that venue will be education in marine environment for the youth of America.”

In the next few months, there will be a lot of marketing going on as well as contact with the Department of Education, “to see if they will give us a base form of what information they want instilled in the youth of America about our oceanic environment going forward,” Westbrook said.

His hopes are to educate youth by taking them fishing for their first time aboard a historical boat in the back bay, where they can catch pinfish or some other species.

“We would target all area schools for outings, for church outings ... and just for the regular public to buy a ticket to take their kid fishing for the first time and learn something about the marine environment,” he said.

Aboard the boat
“We’ll have a classroom environment in the cabin of the vessel,” Westbrook said. He’s thinking of offering marine biology and oceanography classes that would be accredited.

In addition to the classroom concept, Westbrook has plans for a living sea aboard the boat.

“We’re going to build a several thousand gallon aquarium tank,” he said.

In the tank, children will be able to see how the reef system works. Kids will have the opportunity to catch and add something to the tank that they will be able to see in the future as it lives and grows.

“We’ve got a lot of good ideas for the marine industry to try and keep the boat in town where it can support itself and make a living,” Westbrook said. “Because it can’t operate as it has for the past 40 years and make a living in the for-hire industry,” he said. “That opportunity no longer exists, because of the regulations.”

Westbrook is also trying to get documentation to pull a mini-shrimp net behind the boat.

“The kids will be able to pick a living organism out of there that is their favorite of choice to put in the living sea,” he said. The organism will be logged in with the child’s name, phone number and address and updates will be sent to the child with updates if anything happens to their creature.

“It should be a lot of fun for the kids,” he said.

Where’s the boat?
The boat will be semi-retiring, making a move from open ocean fishing to back-bay.

“We’re getting ready to move it right into the mainstream of the community, so it can be seen by the people all the time,” he said.

The New Florida Girl will be moving from its home of 40 years, behind the long-gone Capt. Dave’s on the Harbor, to behind AJ’s Seafood and Oyster House.

Restaurant owner Alan Laird will be supplying a floating dock beside the boat so it will remain the same height for kids to load and unload.

“He shifted all his boats around to allow me to be on a dock that is always stable for the kids,” Westbrook said.

Westbrook already has two boats docked behind AJ’s — the New Florida Girl’s American Spirit and the Suzie Q.
Jim Green, a third-generation fisherman, is captain of the party boat American Spirit.

“He loves it and does a good job with it,” Westbrook said.

Green will continue to run the American Spirit, which is more of a “half-day fishing boat,” Westbrook said.

And the Suzie Q, which is a much smaller boat, will be used mostly for trolling.

Westbrook feels both of those boats still have a place in the fishing industry for now.

On tap for now
Right now, the New Florida Girl has all its Coast Guard papers and fishing permits.

“It could go fishing tomorrow, if there was anything you could catch and keep,” Westbrook said.

Instead, the boat is getting ready to make its move.
Since October, Westbrook has had to lay off 11 employees due to the restrictions and the economy.

“It’s hit hard and I don’t believe it’s just me,” he said.
However, Westbrook is hopeful for the future adventures aboard the New Florida Girl.

 “It’s going to be a full time job, and everybody’s got to be in place correctly to make it work, to make it educational, make it enjoyable, make it something the folks want to go do.

He hopes to have everything going by Spring Break.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed,” Westbrook said. “Everything is looking like we’re going forward.”

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To read a historical retrospective of the boat, click here.

To read about and see photos of a recent brush with rough seas, click here.