CORTEZ — The village of Cortez and the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (F.I.S.H.) will present the 43rd Annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival this Saturday and Sunday.
The local fishing community has had a challenging year after suffering severe storm damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Homes were flooded. Docks destroyed. Businesses lost infrastructure and products. But after almost 150 years of weathering every challenge that the tide brings, one thing is clear: Cortez may get swamped, but they’re never sunk!
The Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (F.I.S.H) invites you to come out on Friday and Saturday to celebrate a real working waterfront community dedicated to preserving their fishing way of life. Soak in the sunshine along Sarasota Bay while you boogie to live local music, browse aisles of original local artwork and nautical crafts, sip cold beverages, and sample some really tasty seafood. Get up close and personal with local marine life and feed your science side during “Dock Talks,” educational spiels put on by the University of Florida Fisheries Department & Florida Sea Grant.
Check out the Florida Maritime Museum and the Cortez Cultural Center, which are steeped in the history of the region. Stop by the Organized Fishermen of Florida booth to visit with some of our local watermen and learn more about commercial fishing. Buy a raffle ticket to enter and win one of the beautiful, refurbished custom boats lovingly restored by the F.I.S.H Boatworks.
Working waterfronts are critical to Florida’s seafood economy and convey a sense of tradition and purpose that is hard to compare. Development, population growth, and shifting priorities have contributed to the decline and disappearance of many fishing villages, but Cortez has survived the changing tides and remains a true vestige of old Florida. The Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival is organized to share the importance of local seafood production with the public.
Cortez was settled in the 1800s by families lured by the bountiful marine resources in our region, and many of those original families’ namesake still live in the village today. This small but mighty fishing village was built on mullet and has diversified over the years to remain a top producer of Florida seafood. Grouper, snapper, stone crab, and baitfish are all landed in Cortez, in addition to the ever-present and forever mighty mullet. If you are eating wild-caught Florida seafood, there is a very strong chance that it crossed the docks of Cortez.
The 2025 Commercial Fishing Festival theme is “Swamped but Never Sunk,” which is true nowhere else like Cortez. The uniqueness and grit of the community envelopes you as soon as you step foot into the village where commercial fishing has built the lives of many families and remains a way of life today.
The Festival is a party with a purpose.
Every penny that the Festival earns is put right back into the community and supports the restoration and conservation of the FISH Preserve, 100 acres of coastal habitat that borders the east end of Cortez Village and is the last stretch of undeveloped waterfront property left on Sarasota Bay.
Get a taste of the REAL Florida.
Grab your sunglasses and your appetite and come on out to celebrate during the 43rd Annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival.
2025 Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival Details:
When: February 15 & 16, 10 am-6 pm
Where: In front of Starfish Co. and A.P. Bell (and between 123 and 124th St W), Cortez, FL 34215.
Admission: $5.00, kids under 12 free.
More Info: fishcortez.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Florida-Institute-for-Saltwater-Heritage-228622397188701
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