For the first time in its 27-year history, the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation is at risk of shutting down due to a freeze in federal funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The delay in releasing money from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund — typically allocated through a competitive grant process — forced RBFF to suspend all active programs and campaigns as of April 1, the start of its new grant cycle.
“Those funds have not been released for this fiscal year, which started on April 1,” Glenn Hughes, president of the American Sportfishing Association, told Trade Only Today. “That means all the national and regional promotion and programming across television, web, social media, events and more has completely halted for the months of April and May and will not exist for the rest of this year.
“The losers in all this are the kids and families that would have been our future anglers that won’t be aware of the opportunities available to them, or the motivation to get them out on the water,” Hughes added. “That leads to fewer license sales, fewer tackle sales, fewer boat sales and less funding for conservation.”
Industry leaders are raising concerns that without immediate action, the organization could dissolve by July. RBFF’s work to promote fishing and boating participation has long been a cornerstone of the industry’s recruitment, retention and reactivation efforts.
“We, as the sportfishing and boating industries, are suffering from the ‘leaky bucket’ syndrome,” Hughes said. “The RBFF has helped bring millions of people into fishing and boating, but we are losing them on the other end through a variety of forms of attrition. Without RBFF’s programs and promotion to recruit anglers and boaters, we will see fewer participants getting in while we continue to lose them on the other end at a greater rate.
“We’ve watched fishing participation increase from 45 million to almost 58 million anglers in just the last decade,” he said. “Much of that is thanks to the dedicated and intelligent approach to reach new and more anglers.”
The federal funds in question — mandated under the National Outreach and Communications Program — come from excise taxes collected from the sale of fishing tackle, licenses and boat fuel. These user-pay/public-benefit dollars fuel conservation work and public access initiatives across all 50 states, helping to generate an estimated $230.5 billion economic impact on the U.S. economy, supporting 1.1 million jobs, generating $263 million in tax revenue, and contributing an estimated $2 billion annually for fisheries and habitat restoration.
In addition to national awareness efforts under the Take Me Fishing brand, RBFF also administers state-level recruitment, retention and reactivation grants; supports youth outreach through First Catch Centers; and equips stakeholders with tools, research and digital platforms that amplify industry engagement. Without RBFF guidance and resources, many state and local programs will be left scrambling.
“Our industries don’t realize all that RBFF does with the states to support fishing-license sales and boat registrations,” Hughes said. “Each year, they bring virtually all 50 states to learn how to better market licenses and registrations and promote fishing and boating in their states. They also provide excellent marketing and promotional tools so that the states don’t have to spend their funding on those items and can put their budgets to work directly on future participants.”
Hughes said those interested in learning more or seeing the work RBFF does can go to the RBFF website and “review/use all the available materials, research and programming that exists for all of us to use — for now.”
The RBFF declined to comment for this story.
