IGFA Announces 2014 Conservation Award Winners
Sportsmanship and conservation go hand in hand – anglers who hope for more and bigger fish tomorrow invariably understand the need to release catches they make today. Since 1993, the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) has been recognizing superlative achievements in fishing conservation with the annual IGFA Conservation Awards, bestowed upon honorees at the yearly IGFA International Auction & Banquet. This year the organization will give Conservation Awards in three categories at the event on January 31, 2014 at their headquarters in Dania Beach, Florida, USA:
Dr. Ken Neill III
IGFA Representative Conservation Award Winner:
Dr. Ken Neill III of Virginia, USA
With the family, friends, and crew who fish with him aboard Healthy Grin, Dr. Neill has contributed to a number of tagging studies and sample collection efforts. Of the dozens of projects Healthy Grin has been thanked for contributing to, Neill reports that some of the most rewarding are the few that have led directly to fishery management decisions. “By capturing young-of the-year bluefin tuna and collecting tissue samples from bluefin tuna of all sizes, as well as participating in a variety of bluefin tagging projects,” Neill reports, “we have helped scientists better understand the relationships between the western and eastern stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna. This information is now being used in international management decisions.”