American Sportfishing Association Honors Sportfishing
Champions
by Mary Jane Williamson
June 7, 2006, Alexandria, VA—On Tuesday, June
6, 2006, the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) presented its
most prestigious honors to two life-long sportfishing advocates during
an evening reception at the Dirksen Senate office building on Capitol
Hill, as part of ASA’s National Fishing and Boating Week celebrations
which took place nationwide June 3-11. Approximately 200 people attended
the reception.
The Honorable John D. Dingell (D-MI) was
honored with the Norville Prosser Lifetime Achievement Award,
and Jim Cummins, director of the
Living Resources Section of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac
River Basin (ICPRB), received the Future of Fishing Award.
“It is an honor to present ASA’s highest awards to two
very different, but equally exceptional advocates,” said Mike
Nussman, president and CEO of ASA, “Congressman Dingell and
his family have contributed more than two lifetime’s work to
the conservation, management and restoration of fisheries nationwide,
while Mr. Cummins has taken the same strategies and applied them to
the restoration of our fisheries in the Potomac River Basin.”
The Norville Prosser Lifetime Achievement Award, named after
the American Sportfishing Association’s former Vice President
for Government Affairs, It is presented to an individual who has shown
extraordinary leadership throughout his or her career in promoting
the values of sportfishing and advancing cooperative approaches to
conservation and recreation. The Future of Fishing Award pays
tribute to those individuals or organizations who design new approaches
to expand fishing participation or community involvement.
Congressman
Dingell is an avid outdoorsman,
and it shows in his work in the U.S. Congress. He
understands that the greatest advocates for the protection of fish
and game are the anglers and hunters themselves. Toward that end,
he has sponsored a number of bills to conserve wildlife and the
traditions of sportsmen and women.
Congressman Dingell’s accomplishments include ensuring
that fishing and hunting remain a priority use in our National Wildlife
Refuge System. He is also an advocate for the restoration and protection
of the Great Lakes. Through the years, Congressman Dingell has been
an advocate for fisheries and sportfishing when federal water projects
were authorized, assuring that both the fisheries and anglers are accommodated
when federal power projects go forward.
"It is an honor for me to accept the Norville Prosser Lifetime
Achievement Award. It is a distinction I share
with those in the conservation community that have come before me,
particularly my father,” said Congressman Dingell. “Dad
handed down to me my love for fishing, hunting, the outdoors and
conservation of precious resources that I have tried to pass along
to my own children. While we have had many successes, much work
remains to be done to ensure that our precious natural resources
can be enjoyed by future generations of sportsmen. I say thank
you to the American Sportfishing Association and to all who work
so hard to ensure Americans can continue to enjoy our outdoor heritage.”
Congressman Dingell also brings a generational legacy of sportfishing
advocacy. His father, former Congressman John Dingell, Sr., co-authored
the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act, commonly known as the
Dingell-Johnson Act of 1950. The Act was the first legislation ever
passed to ensure the management, conservation and restoration of fishery
resources.
Jim
Cummins has amassed a lengthy list of achievements
during his tenure, but none so demanding or rewarding as leading
the cooperative effort to restore American shad to the Potomac
River. The cooperative effort
has successfully helped to triple the number of adult shad collected
during spring brood-stock in the Potomac since 1995. The program
still collects brood stock to provide fry to restock other regional
tributaries.
The American shad was once one of the East Coast’s most abundant
and economically important fish. But by the mid-70s, the stock had
been decimated due to water pollution, over-harvest and other factors.
By the 1990’s, despite significant improvements in Potomac River
water quality, the shad failed to rebound. So, in 1995, the Commission,
under Jim’s leadership and with the cooperation of local watermen,
students, community volunteers and the Harrison Lake federal fish hatchery,
launched the restoration project that ultimately brought American shad
back to the Potomac.
While the project owes its success to many individuals and organizations,
none of it would have occurred without the vision and determination
provided by Jim Cummins.
“I’m honored to be the recipient of the Future of
Fishing Award. Receiving this award is certainly a highlight
of my career and the successful effort to restore the American shad
to the Potomac River is one of the most rewarding,” said Cummins. “However,
I share this award hundreds of volunteers and others who put their
collective hearts and souls into this project. From students to anglers
to commercial watermen to state agency and federal fish hatchery
staff; it was their enthusiasm and passion that brought this project
to fruition. The American shad's return has sparked rapidly increasing
public and angler interest in this remarkable fish which is most
deserved and long overdue. On behalf of myself and all the people
involved, I say thank you.”
The American Sportfishing Association is the sportfishing
industry’s trade association, uniting more than 650 members
of the sportfishing and boating industries with state fish and
wildlife agencies, federal land and water management agencies,
conservation organizations, angler advocacy groups and outdoor
journalists. The American Sportfishing Association safeguards and
promotes the enduring social, economic and conservation values
of sportfishing.
