Houston, TX – With as much as 20 percent of U.S. coastal waters from Maine to the Hawaiian Islands slated for possible closure to recreational fishing, the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) is waging a legislative and legal battle to protect recreational anglers’ right to fish. Pending federal “no fishing zones” in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic and Pacific Ocean threaten to unjustly exclude recreational fishermen from U.S. marine resources.

“No fishing zones have become a real threat to the future of recreational fishermen,” said Fred Miller, Chairman of CCA’s Government Relations Committee. “If we do not take a stand now, this could get completely out of control.”

Responding to this threat, CCA worked with Congressional leaders to draft the “Freedom to Fish Act,” sponsored by Sen. John Breaux, D-LA and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-TX, for the current Congressional session. Although referred to committee, this critically important bill will help ensure recreational anglers’ right to access and set a precedent for future right-to-fish legislation.

“Restricting public admission to our coastal waters should not be our first course of action, but rather our last,” said Sen. Breaux (D-LA).

The Secretary of Commerce recently issued a regulation to close two areas off of the Florida coast to recreational fishing. CCA has filed suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in federal district court opposing this arbitrary recreational closure.

Current Congressional policy allows for area closures when necessary to protect overfished fish stocks. However, the Secretary’s no fishing zones prohibit fishing for non-threatened surface species as well as preventing bottom fishing for gag grouper.

“CCA opposes purely protectionist measures that have no scientific justification,” said Jay Johnson, counsel for CCA. “The NMFS closure was originally justified in prohibiting recreational bottom fishing for gag grouper. But, a complete prohibition to all recreational fishermen is unacceptable.”

CCA opposes regulations that prohibit recreational fishing access unless it can be scientifically determined that recreational fishermen are the cause of a specific conservation problem and traditional conservation measures are inadequate to solve the problem.