Fishermen who are sport fishers and anglers are careful to follow their stringent rules for fair play and line requirements in order to receive the honor of being listed in their annual "World Record Game Fishes" publication.

IGFA's objectives are founded on the beliefs that game fish species, related food fish, and their habitats are economic, social, recreational, and aesthetic assets which must be maintained, wisely used and perpetuated; and that the sport of angling is an important recreational, economic, and social activity which the public must be educated to pursue in a manner consistent with sound sporting and conservation practices.

International Committee members act as liaisons between recreational fishermen, fishing clubs, local governments and fishery agencies in their areas and IGFA headquarters.

The purpose of IGFA, as set forth in the early bylaws, is: "to encourage the study of game fishes for the sake of whatever pleasure, information, or benefit it may provide; to keep the sport of game fishing ethical, and to make its rules acceptable to the majority of anglers; to encourage this sport both as recreation and as a potential source of scientific data; to place such data at the disposal of as many human beings as possible; and to keep an attested and up-to-date chart of world record catches."

The founding fathers of IGFA - including such sportfishing greats as Michael Lerner, Van Campen Heilner, Clive Firth, and Ernest Hemingway - obviously had foresight; the basic purposes they set forth have increased in importance through the years.

[1] IGFA has continuously supported scientific tagging and other data collection programs, and works closely with fishery biologists in order to exchange information and relay to anglers the particular needs and results of research and conservation efforts.

Dr. William King Gregory, head of the Departments of Ichthyology and Comparative Anatomy at the American Museum of Natural History, also was a member of the Australia-New Zealand expedition.

The response was highly favorable and on June 7, 1939, the International Game Fish Association was formally launched in a meeting held at the American Museum of Natural History.

Clive Firth of Australia was elected IGFA's first overseas representative, and others were chosen in Nigeria, New Zealand, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Chile, Costa Rica, the Canal Zone, Cuba, Hawaii, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Early in that decade E. K. Harry, then IGFA vice president, proposed opening the organization to individual membership to insure its continued funding, unify international anglers, and inform a much larger audience of the problems threatening fishery resources.