Montauk -In last weekend’s Shark’s Eye Tournament held at Montauk Marine Basin, competing teams successfully captured, tagged and released 53 sharks, among which were 24 mako, 27 blue and 2 tiger sharks. According to tournament organizer and host, Carl Darenberg of the Montauk Marine Basin, “I’ve only seen a handful of tiger sharks caught in nearly 50 years here off Montauk. They surprised everyone the first day of the tournament Saturday”. High-speed chase boats delivered scientists to competing boats to tag the caught sharks and the excitement was palpable on deck and back on the dock at the end of each fishing day.
The satellite-tagged sharks will be showing up on OCEARCH’S website in the coming days and pinging back their locations. Six satellite tags were made available this year by OCEARCH, with one of them being funded by Austin Marxe. A mako shark, caght by team, Free Nicky, received that satellite tag which was named for Austin Marxe’s granddaughter, Isabella. Four more sharks were caught and tagged by the same team. They were another tiger, named Big Kahuna by students at the Montauk School, a mako named, Chris Nick and a blue shark named Bonak by students at the Amagansett School.
The 6th satellite tag was placed on a mako shark reeled in by Wendy Benchley, wife of JAWS author, Peter Benchley, who was on board one of the chase boats later in the day on Day 2. Benchley who attended in support of the all-release event said, “This is the way of the future for shark fishing and it was exhilirarting to catch my first shark on rod and reel”. She named the shark after her granddaughters, Cate Ells.
Satellite operations were headed again this year by Dr. Greg Skomal and his team from the Massachussettes Shark Research Program. NOAA Fisheries’ Dr. Nancy Kohler oversaw conventional tagging operations.
World renowned marine artist and conservationist, Guy Harvey, and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, one of the organizers of the inaugural event, is supporting the tournament and festival again this year with $10,000 towards the prize purse and signed, limited edition Guy Harvey prints for the lucky winners. “There is no other fishing tournament like Shark’s Eye,” says Guy Harvey. “This tournament combines the thrill of shark fishing, practical conservation measures, and meaningful fisheries research and community involvement into a single event. It is truly the future of shark fishing tournaments.”
FULL TOURNAMENT RESULTS SUMMARY:
Total Sharks Caught Over 2 Days – 53.
2 TIGER, 24 MAKO, 27 BLUE
3rd Place, 20 points: Last Mango II with 11 sharks. 8 blue and 3 mako
2nd Place: Free Nicky, 38 points: 11 sharks. 2 blue (1 sat-tagged), 7 mako (1 sat-tagged), 2 tiger (sat-tagged)
1st Place: Nasty Ness with 38 points. 14 sharks. 6 blue and 8 mako
Satellite-Tagged Sharks Summary
5 sat-tags in shark’s caught by Team – Free Nicky with a tiger named Jamie, another tiger named Big Kahuna by students at the Montauk School, a mako named Chris Nick, and a blue named Bonak by students at the Amagansett School.
1 sat-tag in a shark caught by chase boat, Reel Intensity. Named Cate Ells by Wendy Benchley.