Frank Horvath, Great Lakes-Big Rivers Regional Office event chairperson, said, "National Fishing Week is a special time to celebrate the fun of recreational fishing and the importance of our Nations aquatic resources. The week-long Nationwide observance has been an annual celebration for more than a decade and its purpose is to introduce the public, especially young people, to the opportunities for sport fishing and to showcase the efforts necessary to manage Americas fisheries."
The National observance of National Fishing Week began June 7, with a variety of activities staged in the Nations capital. The National Fishing Week Steering Committee, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., announced recently that entertainer Lee Greenwood is the Honorary chairperson for National Fishing Week 1993.
"Its truly an honor to represent such a universal, far-reaching and beneficial activity as fishing, and in particular the many nationwide activities encompassed in National Fishing Week," Greenwood said. Greenwood succeeds such notable past chairpeople as President George Bush and Retired Air Force General Chuck Yeager.
Highlights of the National Fishing Week celebration include activities that emphasize the fun of fishing to 8- to 10-year-old elementary school students. "We anticipate that many youths will be visiting the zoo as part of end-of-school-year field trips," Horvath said.
He added that activities will include face painting with fishing motif designs, costumed characters roaming the zoo grounds with stickers and pins for kids, and a fish pond where young people can use a rod and reel to fish for stickers, pins and larger fish motif prizes.
"Well also have a casting yard where kids can learn to cast with fishing rods and reels we will provide," he said. "There will be displays teaching fish identification, fishing methods and fishing ethics so everyone can learn of the joys of fishing and the courtesies as well."
In 1992, the National Fishing Week outreach activities of field stations in the Regions eight states resulted in communicating the message of sound fisheries management and recreational fishing joys to more than 650,000 people. The Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. The 1993 celebration includes about 40 scheduled events, including Service hatcheries, refuges and other field stations within the Region.
Honorary Chairman Greenwood noted, "There are more than 60 million anglers in the U.S. today participating in a multi-billion dollar industry that provides economic benefits to all 50 states. Fishing is for everyone; there are no financial, gender, age, cultural or disability barriers. Take a friend fishing and see how the thrill of a moment can last a lifetime."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. For further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our home page at: http://midwest.fws.gov
