KeepAmericaFishing: Keep Hatcheries Open and Your Local Waterways Stocked with Your Favorite Sportfish
KeepAmericaFishing 07.20.12
Support H.R. 5931 to help maintain our nation’s vital fish hatchery operations
Federal recreational fish hatcheries are on the chopping block, and KeepAmericaFishing™ needs your help to keep these important hatcheries operating and your favorite fishing spots stocked with fish.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Hatchery System is responsible for stocking many of our nation’s waters with the fish that anglers enjoy pursuing. Federal hatcheries across the U.S. raise and release millions of recreationally-important species such as rainbow trout to mitigate for the loss of native fisheries due to water development projects such as dams.
With diminishing budgets, the Service can no longer afford to operate these hatcheries without reimbursement from the responsible water management agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Tennessee Valley Authority. Without their reimbursement, the Service may be forced to close hatcheries across the U.S. and reduce stocking operations, which will have a significant impact on recreational fishing opportunity.
With the help of angler advocates like you, a similar threat was avoided last year, but hatchery funding will continue to be an issue until Congress takes action. H.R. 5931, legislation recently introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, will require the responsible agencies to pay for their portion of mitigation hatchery operations and keep hatcheries across the U.S. in operation.
Take Action!
Urge your Member of Congress to support H.R. 5931 and help keep your local fishing spot well stocked with trout and other popular sportfish. Click here to send your message today!
KeepAmericaFishing is the fastest growing community of anglers united with one common goal -- to protect our right to sustainably fish on our nation's waterways. As the voice of the American angler, KeepAmericaFishing works to keep our public resources – our oceans, lakes, rivers and streams – open, clean and abundant with fish.
Across the country, preventing or limiting recreational anglers’ access to public waters fisheries is being touted as a new way to manage fish populations. This unprecedented shift undermines the achievements of proven fisheries management methods that focus on conservation and promote sustainable fishing. As a result, the past 10 years have seen a dramatic increase in bans on recreational fishing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Texas to Minnesota.
In an effort to combat access restrictions around the country, the American Sportfishing Association launched KeepAmericaFishing to unite the nation’s 60 million anglers under one voice. Through policy, science and conservation, KeepAmericaFishing works to minimize access restrictions, promote clean waters and restore fish populations. With its conservation partners, KeepAmericaFishing works to limit and provide for review and revision science-based closures to areas in which they are clearly beneficial to the health of the fishery.
At KeepAmericaFishing, we are working to give voice to the millions of American recreational anglers who share one thing in common - a passion for fishing.
