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369-Pound Tresher Tops Star Island Yacht Club Tournament

By Aaron Boyd | 7 Comments

While the sharks were being weighed, Elliot Gershowitz tested the audience on their knowledge of sharks and Montauk fishing history. Photos by Aaron Boyd

The crew of the Castafari bringing in a 131-lb. mako on Saturday - just enough to qualify, but not enough to win.

Montauk - The Star Island Yacht Club held their 23rd annual Shark Fishing Tournament on Friday and Saturday, June 19 and 20; an eerie, overcast weekend - Perfect for a shark hunt.

One hundred and twenty-eight boats competed, landing blue sharks, mako and threshers. At $800 an entry, the purse had grown to more than $400,000 before the last catches were brought in at 6 p.m. on Saturday, though that pales in comparison with last year, according to yacht club employees, as the prize pool totaled $790,000. "A sign of the economy," one fisherman lamented. Nothing from the tournament is wasted, they claimed, as the catches are donated to the local food pantries.

Local East Hamptonians and visitors to Montauk crowded around the docks to see the sharks as they were hauled in and weighed while Elliot Gershowitz quizzed the children on how to identify the kind of sharks being brought in and the rich history of Montauk's fishing industry.

First place went to a 369-lb. thresher caught by the crew of the Runaway. A 227-lb. mako landed by the Seawife IV took the prize for that category and a 277-lb. shark caught by the fishermen of the Lady Fin was the largest blue brought in over the weekend.

Some local activists from the United States Humane Society and the East Hampton Group for Wildlife stood near the entrance to Star Island on West Lake Drive throughout the tournament, protesting what they call a barbaric sport. "We celebrate and support our fishing industry, but we need to look for an alternative," community activist April Gornik asserted, "It sullies the greatness of our fishing tradition."

The winning mako brought in by the crew of the Seawife IV (left) weighed in at 227 lbs. Both the winning mako and the smaller mako caught by the Castafari (right) were donated to the local food pantries.

The sharks being hauled off the boats, sizable monsters in their own right, all seemed withered and impotent next to the reigning king of catches hanging on the dock - Frank Mundus' 3,427-lb. great white, caught by the crew of the Cricket II on Aug. 6, 1986.

Comments

Guest (Allison) from New York, NY says:
It's a very sad state of affairs when killing for sport is still considered entertainment. Just look at those poor sharks. They don't stand a chance.

Guest (Molly Dougenis) from Sag Harbor, NY says:
Many thanks to April Gornik who helped organize a protest against this awful "sport" in Montauk. I felt good being there trying to raise public awareness of this cruelty for "fun".

Guest (April Gornik) from North Haven says:
On the subject of giving all the shark meat to food pantries in the area, from the Environmental Defense Fund's website guide to seafood on Thresher sharks: Health Details This is an Eco-Worst choice. If you decide to eat it, we recommend the following due to elevated mercury levels: Women should not eat at all Men should eat no more than 1 meal per month Kids up to age 12 should not eat at all Eco Details Sharks are extremely vulnerable to fishing pressure, since they are slow to mature, long-lived, and have few offspring. Sharks have large geographic ranges, but international management is often poor or nonexistent and catches often go unreported. Sharks are often thrown overboard after their valuable fins are removed. I wonder if the food pantries know that women & children shouldn't eat any?

Guest (Carl Safina) from Montauk, Long Island says:
"Nothing is wasted"—except the sharks themselves. I've fished for sharks since the early 1980s. The last one i killed was 10 years ago. The declines in numbers for all the large sharks in our region is really sad to see. I used to love shark fishing, though we released virtually all we caught. But now, the numbers are down so much, it's really not much fun anymore.

Guest (S.O.) from Washington, DC says:
This is absolutley disgusting. Tournament shark fishing should be banned. It's so incredibly irresponsible and barbaric. It's awful that people take their kids to witness and celebrate such brutality. Such disrepect for life and disregard for the natural balance of the ecosystem is surely to catch up with the human race...

Guest (Gareth Dean) from London, England says:
I wonder if everyone would be standing round in such awe and excitement if that was an Elephant or Chimp corpse? No? Thought not. The reason the record dates back to 1986 is that there has been a 90% drop in shark populations. They live for decades, they take time to get to breeding maturity and they breed slowly. All this means they are very sensitive to external factors that affect population. Taking the largest examples accelerates the destruction as breeding examples are taken out of the population. Sharks are being massively over fished all over the developed and developing world. Many shark species are teetering on the brink of extinction and yet we are celebrating their capture and killing for sport. Is this fitting treatment for one of the world's oldest living species? Many studies prove that a live shark is worth far more to a community in tourism than a dead one, even if it is sold for tasteless overpriced shark fin soup. I am glad that Hamptons.com has mentioned the protesters outside, but still sad that this event is seen as a matter of pride and achievement.

Guest (K. Velasquez) from Hawaii says:
What a fricking waste! Tournament fishing should be outlawed! There are better ways to use this money and tag & release should be used. Meat goes to local food pantries? Sure, why not. Let's have the homeless eat this mercury-laden shark meat. If they get sick and die, then less homeless, right! Whoo-hoo. Now we're thinking on all cylinders! Our sharks are being depleted by the hundreds of millions by the finning industry, and that is a brainless way to bring about extinction. Sport fishing by tournaments? #2 on the list of brainless. SHAME SHAME!