Press Releases

Today, U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following statement after introducing H.R. 5026, the Fish Hatchery Protection Act:

“Today, I am proud to introduce important legislation which will prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from arbitrarily killing jobs and harming local economies. My bill will preserve propagation fish hatcheries and propagation programs within the National Fish Hatchery System and stipulates that only the Congress can authorize the termination of such facilities or programs.

“As a result of an administrative decision, important recreational fishing propagation programs have been terminated or slated for termination including the Rainbow Trout Stocking Program at the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery. This decision is extremely misguided as several of the hatcheries affected were constructed more than 60 years ago for the sole purpose of offsetting the loss of native fisheries resulting from the construction of federal dams.

“The recreational fishing propagation programs that are on the Fish and Wildlife’s hit list are the only hatchery programs that generate any substantive revenues for many rural economies. My legislation will reverse the short-sided decisions by the Administration, preserve jobs, strengthen local economies and ensure the continuation of vibrant recreational fishing economies in Arizona and throughout the nation.”

Hildy Angius, Chairman of the Mohave County Board of Supervisors said, “As a representative of the citizens of Rural Arizona, I want to thank Congressman Paul Gosar for introducing the Fish Hatchery Protection Act.  The 52-year old Trout stocking program at Willow Beach in Mohave County supports a multi-million dollar recreational fishing and tourist industry, an industry that makes up over 30% of Mohave County’s economy. The loss of this program would be devastating.  I urge Congress to support the Fish Hatchery Protection Act and fulfill the mitigation commitments that were made decades ago."

"The Arizona Game and Fish Commission applauds Congressman Gosar’s efforts to keep our National Fish Hatcheries open.  Nearly 650,000 Arizona anglers spend over $890 million which impact communities such as Bullhead City and Laughlin Nevada" Robert Mansell, Chairman of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission stated."

Background:

Original cosponsors of Rep. Gosar’s legislation include: Doug Collins (R-GA), Rick Crawford (R-AR), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Michaud (D-ME) and Phil Roe (R-TN).

In November 2013, the Fish and Wildlife Service released its “Strategic Hatchery and Workforce Planning Report.” With the release of this report, the Administration arbitrarily changed the priorities for the five different propagation program categories and announced their intent to close fish hatcheries throughout the nation in fiscal year 2015.

Chairman of the Mohave County Board of Supervisors, Hildy Angius, recently testified before the Appropriations Committee about the importance of preserving recreational propagation programs for fishing. Supervisor Angius stated that recreational fishing in her county supports almost 1,700 jobs and has an annual impact of almost $75 million annually for her county’s economy.

Rather than raising and planting rainbow trout that drive tourism and yield economic growth, the hatchery has been instructed to focus on producing suckers and other fish that don’t attract anglers or benefit Arizona’s economy. Terminating of this important propagation program will stifle Arizona’s multi-million dollar fishing industry as well as cause considerable harm to small businesses and local economies.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s own estimates, the National Fish Hatchery System returns $28 to the national economy for every dollar spent and $3.6 billion to our economy annually.

The text of Rep. Gosar’s Fish Hatchery Protection Act can be found HERE.

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