An Analysis of 8 Years of Angling Outreach in New York City: What Has Worked and What Hasn't

The I FISH NY urban fishing program (IFNY) has been operating in New York City and Long Island, NY, since 2002.  While experiencing the highs and lows associated with operating a program from the ground-up it has become clear that the in-school portion of IFNY in New York City is our most successful program, by far. This program of two classroom lessons and a fishing trip consistently reaches over 1,200 students annually and is fully booked by January.  Our public fishing events, on the other hand, have not been as consistently successful and we have identified several factors contributing to this inconsistency. For example, the large urban population of New York City, which is vital to our in-school program, can lead to reduced fishing clinic attendance due to competition with numerous other available recreation options. We have also identified factors leading to success, for both our in-school program and for public fishing clinics, such as partnering with other organizations in order to utilize their marketing resources.  In this paper we describe our urban angling outreach program and identify and illustrate several causative factors that contribute to success and failure of angling outreach in New York City.