Look for the Sport Fish Restoration logo to identify projects that are funded with these "user pays/user benefits" dollars. Remember also that your purchase of a fishing license helps us to claim about $4 of excise and motor boat fuel taxes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for Sport Fish Restoration projects here in Florida.

For Florida, this means approximately $6 million annually. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) then allocates these funds to individual projects, with freshwater receiving $2.29 million annually and the rest going to saltwater projects. Each project that uses SFR revenues must match at least 25% of the amount with state dollars. The matching source is typically your fishing license fees. A good example of how these monies are used in fresh water is the Community-based fishing program, which received $373,000 this year. As Florida has become increasingly urbanized, with more than 10 million residents (out of 15 million) living in metropolitan areas, it has become more-and-more necessary to service these urban anglers. In 1947, the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission (a predecessor of the FWC, which only dealt with freshwater fisheries not saltwater) held its first four "fishathons" to interest children living in urbanized areas in fishing. However, it was not until after the Wallop-Breaux amendments substantially increased SFR funding that an official "Urban Pond Program" was developed in the Jacksonville area. Its success led to the project being recognized as the SFR project of the year, after which three additional urban fishing projects were added around Orlando, Tampa and Miami. These programs provide 450-900 hours of fishing pleasure per acre per year, by utilizing intensive management techniques including put-grow-take stockings, supplemental feeding, and aeration. A natural lake, for comparison, offers 35-50 hours of fishing per acre per year. Urban fisheries projects are cornerstones of our outreach program by conducting fishing clinics and rodeos. They are also showcases for cooperation with local governments and conservation groups.

A similar example of how funds are expended on the saltwater side involves the Division of Marine Fisheries' education program. In 1995, the then Department of Environmental Protection began using a small percentage of its SFR funds for educational efforts. "Ecoventures"TM, an interactive CD-ROM program featuring a fictitious coastal park, was developed and distributed to all 67 county school districts and to 75 private school systems. Thousands of Florida school children have learned about healthy ecosystems and managing the use of ‘R.U. Green State Park' from this program.

Currently, the Office of Outreach and Education within FWC's Division of Marine Fisheries, has expanded its use of SFR and saltwater license funds to include a series of coastal kid's and women's fishing clinics, a quarterly newsletter, a comprehensive angler's guide to marine resources which includes 116 fish images, a series of fish ID posters as well as many other publications designed to inform the public about the marine environment that surrounds them.

Future articles in this column will feature additional examples of how your license fees and excise tax monies are used to improve the quality of fishing, to provide information and education about fishing opportunities in Florida and most importantly to manage the fish populations for "optimum sustained use." As you will see, habitat protection and enhancement is a cornerstone of these programs, but other tools such as regulation management and fish stocking are also used to ensure the future of fishing in Florida.For more information about how SFR operates, visit their web site at:

http://www.restorewildlife.org/main.cfm