Recreational fishermen off Martha’s Vineyard are facing good number of protests over shark-fishing contest. In the weeks before the Oak Bluffs (Mass.) Monster Shark Tournament kicks off each summer the heat pf protest is rightly felt. Beside recreational fishermen and the crowds of spectators, animal-rights activists, led by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) were also present to campaign against shark tournaments.
According to HSUS the tournaments are cruel and are an additional threat in an era of worldwide shark population decline. John Grandy, a senior vice president of HSUS, told that these events convey to the public the message that the value of these sharks is in their death. The campaign angers tournament organizers, who say that the criticism exaggerates the impact of the events on world shark populations.
It is said that HSUS and local organizations have protested at large events such as the Ocean City (Maryland) Shark Tournament and the Star Island Yacht Club Shark Tournament in Montauk, N.Y. They’ve asked tournament sponsors to end support of the events, and, last fall, HSUS reported allegations of illegal gambling at the Oak Bluffs contest to the Massachusetts attorney general’s office.
Experts informed that animal rights groups want to make it look like we’re destroying the world’s oceans, [but] we’re the ones who have been the champions of conservation and are concerned about the fishery long-term. Last year, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas released a stock assessment of several sharks that live in the open ocean. It estimated the differing catch amounts of fishing nations and reported that the US landed 215 tons of shortfin mako in 2007, while Spain and Portugal combined landed more 3,000 tons.
