Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Founder Tom Davidson Inducted into IGFA Hall of Fame

Tom Davidson Sr. going into the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame is more than a nice plaque for a flats fisherman. It is a reminder that some of the best conservation work starts when anglers see a problem and refuse to shrug it off.

Davidson helped found Bonefish & Tarpon Trust after decades of fishing the Florida Keys and watching bonefish decline. In 1997, he learned how little hard science existed on the species, then helped recruit five anglers to each put up $10,000 for University of Miami research. That effort became the foundation for BTT.

Under Davidson’s nearly two decades as board chairman, BTT grew from a small group of concerned fishermen into a science-based conservation organization working on bonefish, tarpon and permit. Its work has included research on spawning habitat and migration routes, the largest tarpon tracking study in history, support for Everglades restoration, and habitat projects in Florida, The Bahamas and beyond.

That is the kind of conservation anglers should respect: not just complaining at the dock, but funding research, building partnerships and protecting the fishery so the next generation has something left to chase.

Legal fishing and conservation are not enemies. The people who love a fishery enough to fight for clean water, habitat and science are often the same people with rods in their hands. Davidson’s Hall of Fame honor is proof that anglers can do more than use the resource. They can build the institutions that defend it.