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First and foremost, we at ROFFS™ would like to thank you for your support and business during the 2018 year and we are pleased to announce that it was another successful year for many of our clients and for our business. As evident from our website winners list (https://roffs.com/services/recreational/winners/) our clients had outstanding results during the 2018 tournament year. In addition to the tournament winners we appreciate all the feedback and photos from our clients during the year and love to hear your stories and how ROFFS™ products assisted in your successful fishing trips, so please keep them coming in 2019. We pride ourselves on customer interaction and relationships that sets us apart from our competition.
Second of all, as most of you know, ROFFS™ was sold to long time employee Matt Upton back in April of 2018 (https://roffs.com/2018/05/roffs-press-release-announcing-transfer-ownership/). We are overjoyed to have kept all experienced front office staff and analysts that allowed for a smooth transition. For instance our excellent staff with improved technology and experience were able to get out 95% of all requested fishing forecasting analysis. As we continue a new era at ROFFS™ we would like to take a moment to reflect back and thank Dr. Mitchell Roffer who founded ROFFS™ in 1986 and had a large part in building this company to what it is now. Thank you Mitch for all that you have done through the years to maintain excellence and networking. We look forward to the future as we improve our products, technology, and develop new partnerships while maintaining our current relationships.
We also want to take this opportunity and specifically thank our advertisers and business partners who have contributed to ROFFS™ success in 2018 and hopefully continue to do so in 2019. These companies and institutions include the University of Delaware for satellite imagery support, Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), and our advertisers, J. Byrne Marine Insurance, Simrad, Seakeeper, South Jersey Yacht Sales, Gentilini Motors, and DEEP Ocean Apparel. We also remain involved in the oil and gas rig monitoring and ship routing industry and thank our partners DTN LLC and schaudt.us for a job well done as we look to improve and expand our horizons into the future. We also want to give special thanks to South Jersey Tournaments for a successful partnership in 2018 and looking forward to 2019.
It is also important to note, that we continue to remain proactive in the research and science community to advance and keep up-to-date with fisheries oceanography, climate change impacts and satellite remote sensing technology to give our clients the advantage. We will continue to be active with NASA, NOAA, and the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), and remain members and partners with its regional associations (SECOORA and GCOOS). We also remain associated with the Florida Ocean Alliance (FOA) and a supportive partnership with the informative Saltwater Sportsman Magazine National Seminar Series. Specifically for 2018 and 2019 we are still on an active contract assisting in the NASA-NOAA marine biodiversity observation network (MBON) project through the University of South Florida (USF). We completed a NASA funded Rapid Response Hurricane Harvey outflow project in the northwest Gulf of Mexico (https://roffs.com/services/research-environmental/monitoring-hurricane-harvey-plume-gulf-mexico/) and also made the news several times in assisting in understanding and monitoring the red tide outbreak on the east coast of Florida and the outflow of freshwater and contaminated water from Hurricane Florence (https://roffs.com/2018/09/roffs-hurricane-florence-ocean-conditions-comparison/).
We are excited to announce that we will once again have a booth at the Miami (FL) International Boat Show (Feb. 14-18, 2019), the Atlantic City (NJ) Boat Show (Feb. 27 – Mar. 03, 2019) and this year at the New England Boat Show (Feb. 9-17th, 2019). We will be in the Goose Hummock Shops booth on Feb. 9-10th in Boston, MA at the New England Boat Show, so please come see us. We will be involved with seminars in different locations around the Gulf of Mexico Coast and East Coast of the United States over the winter and spring seasons so please keep looking at our social media outlets and newsletter announcements.
As we look to 2019, some things will remain the same, but we will be introducing improved products, formats and overall look, some tweaks with office policy and hours, as well as new partnerships and updated software/hardware to make our analysis more accessible to our clients and make business run more efficiently. Furthermore, we will continue to incorporate and evaluate the newer satellite data from NASA, NOAA and ESA to improve our spatial and temporal coverage in near real time and give us an advantage over our competitors. We take satisfaction in providing you with the most detailed analysis of the ocean conditions to improve your fishing/working environment and productivity. Therefore, PLEASE stay active with our web site (roffs.com), social media platforms and weekly newsletter for important announcements and improvements and as always we welcome your feedback.
We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and look forward to a happy, healthy and productive new year.
Matthew A. Upton
President – ROFFS™
