Your weekly look at how ASA’s government affairs team is hard at work supporting sound fisheries policies throughout the country.
ASA Joins Industry Coalition to Improve Fisheries Conservation
Last week, ASA and other like-minded organizations highlighted sportfishing policy priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill. The organizations, all members of the Fisheries in the Farm Bill Coalition, called for key investments in agricultural conservation that will benefit freshwater and saltwater fisheries. Learn more
Commercial Fishing Hurting Coastal Communities in the Chesapeake Bay
ASA co-signed a letter to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin reaffirming the need for a one-mile purse seine buffer throughout the Chesapeake Bay to protect local communities from problems related to commercial menhaden fishing. We are concerned by a lack of action in Virginia to protect fisheries and local communities from ecological damage in the Chesapeake Bay caused by Omega Protein. Learn more
ASA Leads Effort to Protect Traditional Tackle
Last week, ASA led a group of outdoor recreation organizations in sending a letter to congressional appropriators asking them to prohibit regulating lead fishing tackle in fiscal year (FY) 2024. Prohibiting lead tackle regulations is a longstanding bipartisan tradition that has been included in annual appropriations bills for years. Learn more
Save our Great Lakes from Nuclear Waste!
Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Representatives Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) and John James (R-Mich.) introduced legislation opposing Canada’s plan to construct a permanent nuclear waste storage facility in the Great Lakes Basin. A nuclear accident near the Great Lakes is an unnecessary risk that would have lasting ramifications for the environment and people throughout the region. Learn more
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.