Animal Rights Activists Protest Shark Tournament

By Samantha Caiola

With the 23rd Annual Star Island Yacht Club Shark Tournament in Montauk, a much anticipated event within the Long Island fishing community that runs June 18 to 20, animal rights activists are protesting to stop the event.

The Humane Society of the United States and Fishpond USA, a major recreational fishing products company, are fighting to put an end to the tournament on the grounds of it being detrimental to an already dwindling shark population caused by over fishing on the east coast. But organizers and participants say that most of the sharks are released and those that aren’t are donated to charity to help feed the hungry.

At last year’s Star Island Yacht Club Tournament, more than $760,000 were awarded for the capture of 42 sharks, the biggest being a 353-pound thresher shark caught by 16-year old John Digertt. Thresher, Mako, and Porbeago sharks, which are frequent targets at shark tournaments, are facing worldwide extinction, according to a 2008 study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

“The Star Island Yacht Club Shark Tournament encourages ecologically damaging practices, and exploits sharks in the process by celebrating their deaths with large cash prizes,” said John Grandy, vice president of the Humane Society of the United States in a statement. “We call on the organizers of this event to end this tournament now.”

The tournament is an elaborate event, starting with the captain’s meeting on Thursday, followed by two days of fishing and ending with an awards ceremony on Saturday featuring free dinner and live music. There is an $800 entry fee per boat. The Yacht club offers boat rentals and charter captains for those who want to participate in the shark tournament but do not possess the equipment, states the club’s website.

According to the tournament’s Web site, more than 400 sharks were released back into the ocean after last year’s tournament. Of the sharks that were captured, more than 1,200 pounds of edible shark meet was donated to the Long Island Council of Churches food pantry.

Still, those opposed to the tournament cry fowl, citing federal reports that advise against the consumption of shark meat by children and pregnant or nursing women due to the risk of mercury contamination.

Tournament protesters accuse the tournament as condoning atrocities against sharks by hanging and weighing them alive, and then dismembering them in front of children.

“Shark tournaments are a disgrace to the environment and the community,” said John LeCoq, cofounder of Fishpond USA, in a statement. “Montauk should stop playing host to this kind of brutality.”

Regardless, the tournament is scheduled to go on, offering a $25,000 dollar prize for the heaviest shark in the tournament. Last year, 193 boats were entered in the competition.

“We will definitely come back,” said  George Tyrell Jr, member of the Pattaconk Yacht Club,who participated in last year’s tournament, in a statement on the club’s website. “We liked the facility. Star Island is very clean and has a very professional, friendly and well-organized staff.”