Community Corner
Last Saturday's Shark's Eye "No Kill" Tournament Declared A Success
Check out the newly tagged sharks on ocearch.org.
Last weekend’s tournament Shark's Eye “No-Kill” at Montauk Marine Basin has been declared a huge success, with over 64 sharks caught (33 of them makos).
Sharks, long hunted for food and sport, are starting to face extinction, and in turn so is the shark fishing industry. The tournament was intended to ring in the next phase of the coevolution of sport shark fishing, so that both sides can continue for generations to come.
“As a 40-plus- year fisherman in Montauk, an important factual result in this Tournament, is that all 31 mako sharks were caught with circle hooks," said angler Joe Gaviola, "This is a significant occurrence and one to be referenced in the future. I don't believe that this many Makos were caught using this type hook in any Tournament in the world. Our boat was lucky enough to catch 4 up to 250 pounds, all low impact jaw hooked.”
Circle hooks, which are less damaging to captured sharks allow for a faster healing process and a significant harm reduction to the fish's general health.
Each boat team was allowed to tag and name four sharks. Eligible mako, thresher and blue sharks were all fitted with satellite tracking tags, which allow their movements to be monitored after release utilizing the online OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker. Beamer, for instance, a 200 pound Blue Shark named by Montauk schoolchildren, will provide information for years to come. Anyone interested in following Beamer, April, Rizzilient, or Princess, the four satellite tagged sharks, can go to www.ocearch.org and check in on their progress.
Darenberg, the host and chief organizer of the event, proclaimed that
“With the success of this tournament, I am going to mandate circle hooks for all
future shark tournaments. Its success was beyond my expectations, and means that my kids and grandkids will be able to enjoy the ocean the way I have.”
Full tournament results are available at Montauk Marine Basin’s website:
http://www.marinebasin.com/?id=000001&doc=tournament_winners.html
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