Institute For Fisheries Resources

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Institute for Fisheries Resources, PO Box 29196, San Francisco, CA 94129-0196

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Our Mission

The Institute for Fisheries Resources is dedicated to the protection and restoration of fishery resources and the human communities and economies that depend on them. By establishing alliances among fishing men and women, and with government agencies, and concerned citizens, IFR unites resource stakeholders, protects fish populations, and restores aquatic habitats.

Our History

The Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with headquarters in San Francisco, California and an active Pacific Northwest Regional Office in Eugene, Oregon.

Increasingly, the fishing industry has been facing threats from accelerating loss of fisheries habitat, destruction of once-abundant salmon runs, escalating ocean pollution problems, poorly planned offshore industrial development such as for offshore oil and aquaculture, and these multiple problems are now all exacerbated by accumulating climate changes.

These environmental problems are coastwide, and thus require a coastwide response, based on the best available science. Established in 1993 by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) [www.pcffa.org], IFR is responsible for carrying out fishery research and conservation programs that help protect and restore our US west coast fisheries. Like our coastal communities and our members, we are strong advocates for sustainable fisheries and fishing-dependent communities that depend on a healthy ocean and watershed resource.

What We Do

Unite. Protect. Restore.

Unite.

By fostering strong alliances among commercial fishing groups, conservation organizations, Tribal and government agencies, and scientists, IFR seeks to advance its advocacy work on common resource protection and conservation issues. Through these cooperative efforts, we are helping to correct destructive land use policies and practices, protect biologically important watersheds along the United States’ Pacific Coast, and maintain biologically healthy watershed and marine ecosystems.

Protect.

IFR is dedicated to organizing and activating the commercial fishing community as a voice for protection of this nations’ irreplaceable natural resources, including the protection of wetlands, clean water, and healthy forest ecosystems. We also seek to educate the community at large concerning the urgent need for protection of our world’s biological resources.

Restore.

IFR is committed to ensuring that environmental practices and policies designed to protect inland forests, rivers, wetlands, estuarine, and coastal ecosystems are adopted and properly implemented. For this reason, IFR is an active leader in several major salmon watershed restoration efforts, including programs affecting California’s Battle Creek, its Eel and Elk Rivers, the Klamath River Basin, the San Francisco Bay’s greater watershed, northern California and southern Oregon coastal watersheds, and the Columbia River/Snake River Basin.

What Makes IFR Different

The difference between IFR and other conservation organizations is that the inspiration for our work is from within the fishing community itself. We are still closely affiliated with our founding organization PCFFA, and our Board of Trustees consists entirely of professional fishing men and women who represent small to mid-sized fisheries all along the US Pacific Coast.

Fishing-dependent communities have long realized that the way of life they treasure cannot continue unless 1) fisheries habitat is protected and restored, and 2) fish stocks are rebuilt and harvested in a sustainable manner. Fishing communities have a generations-deep, strong and enduring environmental ethic – and know always that they depend upon a healthy ocean environment for their very existence!

Our unique role as a “bridge” between traditional conservationist organizations and the commercial fishing industry also enables us to build powerful strategic alliances. In this way, we can reinforce essential conservation campaigns while underscoring the connection between environmental protection and a sound and sustainable economy.

For more information on current IFR programs or to find out how you can help support IFR, please contact us.