I was shocked by some of the research that came back from our independent research group. I didn't realize that more adult Canadians fish than play golf and hockey combined. I thought golf would supersede fishing in a heartbeat. Yes, I was shocked too. We all were, and we were elated, at the same time, to see the great statistics.
I hate to keep coming back to the money part, but that is one of the problems. We, as an association, are trying to promote recreational fishing on a shoestring budget of $50,000 to $60,000 a year. We receive millions of dollars of in-kind advertising, and we appreciate that, but wouldn't it be great if we had a budget of $10 million to spread the word about the benefits of recreational fishing? Wouldn't that be amazing, to drive these facts home to people?
I agree with you. I am sure you've heard a lot of groups maybe question those statistics, but we stand by them. I've been in ad agencies where I've held up our document, and the hardened marketing ad agency people couldn't get enough of this information. They had no idea how big recreational fishing is.
Again, it's a matter of spreading the word, and that takes dollars and cents.