AREA KIDS WILL KICKOFF NATIONAL FISHING AND BOATING WEEK AT CONSTITUTION GARDENS ON THE NATIONAL MALL

Video Footage(3MB.wmv)

Students from schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia will go fishing on the National Mall at Constitution Gardens today to kickoff National Fishing and Boating Week, the nationwide celebration of two hugely popular national pastimes.

Officials from a number of public agencies and non-government conservation organizations, as well as Washington Redskins right tackle Jon Jansen, will invite the students to join them in an official castoff at the pond at 10:30 AM.

The observance continues across the country through June 13. Co-sponsored by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, the week is expected to draw thousands of boaters and anglers to hundreds of tournaments, clinics and educational programs throughout the United States.

The Constitution Gardens event is one of more than a dozen separate boating and fishing events scheduled in Washington, Virginia and Maryland. Area students, all fourth, fifth and sixth graders, will be supplied with fishing gear and invited to try their hand at catching sunfish, channel catfish, largemouth bass and more in the Gardens pond, located between 17th and 23rd Streets, off Constitution Avenue.

Some 25 volunteers from the Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Fisheries and Habitat Conservation will be on hand with advice and help for the young first-time anglers. Besides the Service, other partners include the American Sportfishing Association, Trout Unlimited, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, District of Columbia Fisheries and Wildlife Division, National Park Service, NOAA Fisheries, Future Fisherman Foundation, Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Most States are expected to sponsor Free Fishing Days in connection with National Fishing and Boating Week as well as thousands of fishing clinics, casting contests, derbies, fish hatchery open houses and other family-oriented activities. Hundreds of communities are expected to sponsor their own fishing and boating-related events.

The Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act of 1998 dedicated $36 million of Sport Fish Restoration program funds for a five-year national outreach and communication effort, administered by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. Partners include the fishing, boating and conservation communities, state and federal fisheries program, natural resources and tourism agencies and other interested organizations. Foundation funding is provided under a cooperative agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

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 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 542 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 81 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, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.

-fws-