The American Sportfishing Association’s (ASA) number one role is advocating for the business interests of the sportfishing industry.
ASA’s new blog – The Sportfishing Advocate – seeks to explain in laymen’s terms the often-complicated mechanisms behind legislative and regulatory policy decisions.
“Sportfishing policy can be complicated and messy, but the regulatory arena has a huge impact on the industry,” said Mike Leonard, ASA’s vice president for Government Affairs. “Our goal with The Sportfishing Advocate is to provide our members and anyone interested in issues that impact recreational fishing with easy-to-understand explanations and ASA’s position on key issues.”
For decades, ASA has worked with the regional fishery management councils to help ensure they are making science-based decisions that impact recreational fisheries. The first blog post highlights ASA’s efforts to create new recreational harvest control rules for certain Mid-Atlantic species of fish through the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
This week’s blog highlights ASA’s efforts to work with the Pacific Fishery Management Council. These include Pacific bluefin tuna management actions, an assessment of Pacific anchovy and the development of a hard cap for drift gillnetting.
About
The American Sportfishing Association (ASA) is the sportfishing industry’s trade association committed to representing the interests of the sportfishing and boating industries as well as the entire sportfishing community. We give the industry and anglers a unified voice when emerging laws and policies could significantly affect sportfishing business or sportfishing itself. ASA invests in long-term ventures to ensure the industry will remain strong and prosperous, as well as safeguard and promote the enduring economic, conservation and social values of sportfishing in America. ASA also gives America’s 55 million anglers a voice in policy decisions that affect their ability to sustainably fish on our nation’s waterways through Keep America Fishing, our national angler advocacy campaign. America’s anglers generate nearly $50 billion in retail sales with a $125 billion impact on the nation’s economy creating employment for 800,000 people.