Northeast Angling Partners with the RFA
Northeast Angling is a long time supporter of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. The RFA is a political action organization that was established in 1996 to represent the rights recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry as a whole on marine fisheries issues. The RFA represents “us,” the fisherman to state officials and make sure that we are heard.
Some of the RFA’s best accomplishments were:
- Spearheaded the effort to pass legislation to restrict menhaden harvesting by reduction vessels in the Long Island Sound.
- Spearheaded legislation in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island to ban the harvest of valuable inshore forage fish and eliminate menhaden harvest for reduction purposes inside state waters.
- Successfully lobbied members of congress to include recognition of the recreational fishing industry under the definition of fishing community in the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
“The biggest challenge we face is the fight to reform and bring common sense and sound science into the fisheries management process”, says James Donofrio, RFA founder and Executive Director.
The RFA plays one of the most major roles in helping protect our right to fish, and with out them, the issues we face as anglers such as fishing regulations would definitely be worse than they currently are now. The RFA has done so much for anglers in the past, and we thank them.