When a typical American family drives out to Little 

 Pond for a Saturday of fishing, or when a father and son 

 and their dog set out for an afternoon of hunting, they 

 have lots of company. Probably more than the average 

 citizen of any other great modern nation, the average 

 American enjoj^s sport fishing and hunting. 



Fishing and hunting have always been part of America. 

 When colonists first came to this continent, the New 

 World's fish and game meant the difference between life 

 and death. Men fished and hunted then to feed their 

 families. Today, long after they have ceased to be the 

 basis of subsistence, fishing and hunting continue as an 

 important part of our standard of living by providing 

 recreation for millions of Americans. 



There have been many evidences of the importance of 

 fishing and hunting in modern America. Millions of 

 fishing and hunting licenses are sold each year. Many 

 thousands of people belong to fishing and hunting clubs. 

 Sales of sport-fishing tackle and hunting arms and am- 

 munition mount to millions of dollars annually. 



But despite the many evidences that these sports are 

 big in recreational importance and in economic import- 

 ance, nobody has known exactly how big. Rough esti- 

 mates have been made that the Nation's sportsmen spend 

 anywhere from a billion to $10 billion a year for goods and 

 services in connection with their fishing and hunting 

 pursuits, but these have been little more than guesses. 



Fishing and hunting licenses do not tell the whole 

 story, because on the one hand many fishermen and hunt- 

 ers don't have to have licenses and on the other hand 

 many persons have more than one kind. Only part of 

 the army of fishermen and hunters belong to clubs. And 

 the production of fishing and hunting equipment tells 

 only part of the story about the economic importance of 

 these sports. 



