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FishAmerica Foundation Hooks Up With The Redfish Nation
by Janet Tennyson

Redfish conservation will get a boost from a new partnership between the FishAmerica Foundation and The Redfish Nation, an angler organization launched this month by outdoor television producers J.M. Associates of Little Rock, Arkansas. The partnership will help raise funds to support redfish conservation and spotlight the growing popularity of redfish fishing.

The Redfish Nation, spawned by J.M. Associates' popular redfish tournament series, has agreed to donate $3 out of every $40 membership fee to the FishAmerica Foundation, the American Sportfishing Association's non-profit foundation dedicated to grassroots conservation and research. Because it can target tournament anglers' contributions directly to species-specific projects, FishAmerica has growing appeal with tournament organizers.

"Anglers have been passionate crusaders for redfish recovery in the Southeast, and we congratulate The Redfish Nation for offering its members a way to keep giving back to their sport," said Johanna Laderman, Managing Director of the FishAmerica Foundation.

"We have an opportunity to do some good here," said David Healy of J.M. Associates. "FishAmerica, through its vast resources and experience, will allow every member of The Redfish Nation, from tournament pros to casual anglers, to participate in taking care of the tremendous redfish fisheries we have from the Carolinas to Texas."

J.M. Associates began organizing redfish tournaments in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida last year, culminating in the Oh Boy! Oberto Redfish Cup televised on ESPN2. Because the tournaments were so popular-attracting almost 500 competitors and some 18,000 spectators-J.M. Associates decided to expand the tournament series and create The Redfish Nation as an organization dedicated to redfish anglers.

Several members of the American Sportfishing Association sponsor the redfish tournament series, including Boater's World, Falcon Rods, Lowrance, Mercury Marine, Pure Fishing, and Triton Boats.

FishAmerica and The Redfish Nation also plan to create other fundraising opportunities during the redfish tournaments and events, and through J.M. Associates' media outlets, including a Redfish Nation magazine planned for publication later this year and the Oh Boy! Oberto Redfish Cup program guide.

The partnership's contributions to conservation stand to grow as the Redfish Cup series expands to include more events. This year it will include four tournaments plus the championship, including events in Kemah, Texas (near Galveston); Port Aransas, Texas; Punta Gorda, Florida; and Chalmette, Louisiana (near New Orleans), with the championship venue to be announced in coming weeks. In addition, six new Q-series events will begin this fall to help anglers qualify for the lucrative Redfish Cup in 2005.

More information about FishAmerica Foundation can be found on www.fishamerica.org. Information on The Redfish Nation and its tournament series is available at www.RedfishNation.com and www.RedfishCup.com.

The FishAmerica Foundation unites the sportfishing industry with conservation groups, government natural resource agencies, fishing tournament trails, corporations, and charitable foundations to invest in fish and habitat conservation and research across the country. FishAmerica provides matching grants that empower citizen conservationists in their own communities. Since 1983, FishAmerica has provided more than $6 million for more than 750 grassroots conservation projects nationwide.

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