Sport Fish Restoration (link to state page) is a partnership between the angling and boating public, industry, and state and Federal governments. The public pays an excise tax on fishing equipment, duties on imported boats, and a gasoline tax. The public also provides advice to the states and Federal government about how the money should be spent.

The industry is also a vital partner and has helped lobby for the tax, and they serve as watchdogs guarding how the money is spent. It is in their interest, as much as anyone’s, to see that the funds are used wisely to enhance fisheries and generate more business for them and pleasure for their clients.

The Federal Government collects the money and oversees the program. The dollars are allocated to the states based on the size of the state and number of paid fishing license holders. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) receives about $2.3 million annually from this source, which is nearly a quarter of the Division of Freshwater Fisheries’ total budget. The money is used for various projects that improve public fishing and enhance boating.

Up to 10 percent of the money goes to education, which is primarily focused on teaching youth how to fish and instructing them about the importance of the environment and how to protect it. In addition, a series of educational bulletins and regional fishing guides are produced.

The majority of the money, however, goes to projects that work on our major aquatic resources. FWC biologists are responsible for learning all they can about the fish populations, anglers’ desires, and habitat concerns for a particular water body. They then implement projects to help meet our goal of providing “optimum sustained use” of the resource. In other words, we find out what the public wants, and then try to provide it, so that future generations also will have quality fisheries. Projects like this exist on the Oklawaha, Ochlockonee, and St. Johns rivers, as well as several smaller rivers and the associated reservoirs and lakes. The Everglades, Orange and Lochloosa lakes have similar projects.