Help Conserve Fishery Habitat and Sportfish Populations
KeepAmericaFishing 06.22.12
As an angler, you know that healthy waterways and robust fish populations are vital to a successful day on the water. Unfortunately, all across the United States, fish and their habitat are facing challenges on several fronts. While there are numerous community-based efforts underway to help restore fish habitat, there is a need for conservation action on a range-wide scale for these efforts to be successful.
What’s Happening?
Senator Lieberman (I-Conn.) has introduced legislation into Congress that will have a tremendous impact on fish and their waters. The National Fish Habitat Conservation Act (NFHCA) – S. 1201 – will establish a comprehensive national framework for conserving, restoring and enhancing fish habitats throughout the United States.
The NFHCA will authorize the most comprehensive effort ever attempted to improve fish habitat. Focusing on community-driven efforts, this program aims to restore fish habitats on a landscape scale through projects such as eliminating barriers to fish passage, restoring native vegetation and removing invasive species. By restoring fish habitat and boosting fish populations, the NFHCA will improve fishing opportunities across the country, helping to ensure that you, your family and your friends can continue to get outside and enjoy our nation’s aquatic resources.
Take Action!
KeepAmericaFishing needs your help to ensure passage of this important legislation. The NFHCA was recently approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and will soon be considered by the full U.S. Senate. Send a message to your Senators asking for their support of the NFHCA and help conserve and restore fish habitat nationwide. 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.
