Traditionally family and/or friends spent time together in the outdoors fishing. It was healthy, provided fine table fare, and provided a catalyst for communication. Good conservationists emerged from their understanding of the natural world, and anglers have been leaders. Anglers paid, and continued to pay, for conservation through license fees and excise taxes. The natural affinity between fishing and the traditional family experience provided a steady pool of new angling recruits. No marketing was required. Today the trend is quite different from that traditional experience. Fishing participation growth has ceased. Anglers and professional fisheries managers must continue investing time, money, and energy in aquatic resource conservation. We must market and promote fishing within the culture of our citizenry.
