Marine Manufacturing

Marine Manufacturers and Conservation

Creating new opportunities for boating and fishing nationwide

For decades, America’s marine manufacturers have shared a partnership with state and federal biologists through the Dingell-Johnson Act — a partnership that funds remarkable conservation success stories and improves boating at the same time. 

This partnership would be impossible without you, the craftspeople and business owners who help fund the Sport Fish Restoration grants. Our Partner with a Payer initiative invites you to join us to see how your success protects clean water, conserves healthy fisheries, and creates new opportunities for boating and fishing nationwide.

WSFR funding benefits boaters, anglers, and everyone else
Since 1984, federal excise taxes on motorboat fuel and import taxes on yachts and pleasure craft have been one of America’s most effective tools for conservation. These funds help ensure clean water, healthy fish, and public access to America's treasured waters.
Largemouth Bass

Restoring fisheries

Biologists study, monitor and manage more than 200 species of fish with federal excise tax funds, like the many grants used for black bass conservation. Once called “the most abused of all American game fish,” the largemouth and smallmouth bass fishery is now one of America’s finest.

Three people launching a boat at a boat ramp

Increasing boating access

In the past eight years, 319 new fishing and boating access sites have been constructed with federal excise tax funds. In total, more than 8900 public boating and fishing areas are maintained by Sport Fish Restoration funds.

Two children canoeing

Welcoming new boaters

Every three years, over 1 million people receive aquatic education supported by federal excise tax funds, like the hundreds of students that go through the Florida Conservation Commission’s fishing and boating camps each year. 

Corpus Cristi Marina

Building boating facilities

Each year, states build, renovate and maintain boat slips, boat ramps, pump-out stations, waste reception facilities and other boating infrastructure using federal excise tax funds, like the Corpus Christi Municipal Marina in Texas, a boating hub modernized for the 21st century.

Featured Video

Waterways for All

Improving and Expanding Public Fishing & Boating Access

Did you know? Clean water, healthy fisheries, and public access to recreational boating opportunities is made possible by the Sport Fish Restoration Program. Funded through manufacturers, the program uniquely benefits all parties — conservationists, fishermen, and the industry.

Partner with a Payer: Angling

Sport Fish Restoration Successes

Partner with a Payer strengthens the ties between the people who make a successful conservation partnership work — the manufacturers that pay federal excise tax through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Acts, the state agencies that conserve wildlife and habitat across the country, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Conservation Investment.

Did you know?

Sport Fish Restoration, Clean Vessel Act and Boating Infrastructure grants use federal excise taxes to ensure abundant fish and clean water, increase boating access to millions of acres of fresh and salt water, and welcome new people into the industry through education — a productive trifecta that ultimately benefits manufacturers.

In The News

Midwest Association Of Fish And Wildlife Agencies

Marine Manufacturing, R3

December 11, 2024
Motorized boating is a popular American outdoor pastime, an economic force, and funds conservation efforts across the Nation. To capture metrics on the time spent outdoors along with the economic impacts of recreational boating, the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation included motorized boating survey questions for the first time in the Survey’s 67-year history.
Man standing on a pumpout station vessel, smiling at the camera

Angling, Management, Marine Manufacturing

August 22, 2024
Clean Vessel Act improves the quality of life for all.
Mom and daughter fishing on a boat

Management, Marine Manufacturing

June 10, 2024
For more than half a century, America’s fishing equipment manufacturers have shared a partnership with state and federal biologists through the Dingell-Johnson Act — a partnership that uses excise tax to fund remarkable fisheries conservation and recreation.
Agencies and industry working together for conservation