Conservation. Education. Sportsmanship. Those three little words can mean a whole lot for the future of the Boca Grande Pass, and both the Boca Grande Area Chamber of Commerce and the Boca Grande Fishing Guides Association are very aware of that.

An emergency meeting of the Boca Grande Fishing Guides Association will be held in the next few days to address minor discrepancies that came up at Tuesday night’s World’s Richest Tarpon Tournament rules committee meeting.

“Nothing will be decided tonight,” were the words that Capt. Cappy Joiner used at the meeting, and said he needed to consult with the rest of the BGFGA board before finalizing the rules.

The rules committee consists of Joiner, who is the president of the BGFGA, Capt. Waylon Mills, who is the vice president, Capt. Sandy Melvin, Chad Lach, Aaron Diaz and Richy Edwards.

This year will be the first since 2004 that the World’s Richest will return. After the Chamber decided to take a hiatus from the event in 2005, the Boca Grande Fishing Guides Association took over the tournament and renamed it the Boca Grande Fishing Guides Association Tarpon Tournament. They held the tournament every year until now.

There are some changes to the rules that include a larger fishing area, as well as leader and line weight requirements.

Hastings said they expect to have the World’s Richest rules finalized sometime in the next two weeks.

“Education and conservation of the fishery, combined with sport fishing, will be the primary focus,” Hastings said. “Safe boating, sportsmanship and responsible angling will be promoted in order to encourage a safe, successful, family-friendly event that will ensure the protection and proper stewardship of our natural resources, so that they may be enjoyed for generations to come.”

The 2012 World’s Richest Tarpon Tournament is scheduled for May 17 and 18. Capt. Tater Spinks on the Anejo was the first to sign up, with Capt. Sandy Melvin and Boca Blue close behind.

Anthropomorphic. It’s a great word, but is usually used in a negative light. It may not be scientifically correct to give animals human emotions, but it isn’t often that a wild animal will display as many human qualities as Lolo Weir’s raccoon did.

The Boca Bay resident has done battle with the feral, ring-tailed menace for weeks, but last week’s nocturnal maneuvers took the cake.

Island churches have announced services for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The First Baptist Churchʼs Christmas Eve Service will be at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 24. The Christmas Day Service will be at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 25.

The Boca Grande Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Membership Meeting at the chamber office on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 5:30 p.m.

The event will be catered by Sisters Restaurant and will be free to chamber members. Festivities will take place on the porch between Sisters and the chamber office.

The short agenda will include the introduction of new board members and officers, and a calendar of chamber events planned for 2012.