NEW ORLEANS — Jim Martin, a longtime bass fishing conservationist, was awarded the American Sportfishing Association’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award last month at the ASA Sportfishing Summit in New Orleans, La.
Martin was recognized for his extraordinary leadership and lifelong commitment to ensuring the health of our nation’s fisheries and finding new and better ways to enhance aquatic habitat and protect fishery resources.
Following a 30-year career as a fishery biologist and eventual fish chief for Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, he became director of Pure Fishing’s Berkley Conservation Institute (BCI). There, he worked for the next 17 years to make conservation a relevant and dynamic part of his company’s and the broader fishing tackle industry’s mission.
Martin was a key player in the founding and continued success of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and was a long-time friend of B.A.S.S. Conservation.
He was a strong supporter of the Berkley Conservation Award, which was presented annually to a B.A.S.S. Nation club for doing exceptional work to protect and enhance recreational fishing through conservation.
Martin is now retired from BCI and spends his time hunting and fishing, guiding friends for salmon and sturgeon on the Columbia River, and training bird dogs. He continues to give his inspiring speeches on conservation with his speaker’s fee being only a good hunting or fishing trip.
Other winners at the ASA Sportfishing Summit were Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who won the Future of Fishing Award, and Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves, who won the Congressional Champion Award.
