Saturday
Jan122013
PTTS Tarpon Dying on Beach of Boca Grande
Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 12:01AM Further proof the PTTS is killing tarpon.
A tarpon is seen dying after it was "revived and released" by the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series Tires Plus Release Team during the final event of the 2012 season. This is part one of a two part series of events illustrating the destructive practices of the PTTS.
(via: Save the Tarpon)
Reader Comments (6)
A tarpon died. So what? Fishing is a blood sport.
I'm all for responsible fishing, but these guys are over-the-top. Seems like if they had to choose between saving a drowning baby or a dying tarpon, they'd choose the tarpon.
I think you're missing the point, Hillary.
Are you suggesting these tournament anglers are intentionally killing tarpon? As Hillary Clinton said, fishing is a blood-sport. Fish die, even at the hands of the self-righteous catch-and-release zealots. If you are so worried about a fish dying, take up golf.
Just think how good your favorite small bass lake would be if they held a major tournament there 3 days a week for a month during their prime spawning season. While you can't find room to fish, the guy who owns the marina is counting his money along with the tournament organizer just sets up camp. Pretty simple who is the beneficiary here. Its not the resource or the public, as it should be.
Everyone kills a fish from time to time, unintentionally. Tarpon fishing is different. There is simply no safe way to have a scale based tarpon tournament. Fight time stress, Giant Sharks, and gravity when removed from the water all play a major role in reducing survival.
Don't get me started on the boats... The once classic pass looks like the back stretch at Talladega.
Excellent analogy. The PTTS promotes its "release team" and the fine job they do of "reviving" their tarpon as evidence of its dedication to conservation, welfare of the fish, etc. It's all a sham, of course. It's designed to foster the lie that this tournament is a responsible citizen and that its methods are, somehow, beneficial to the species as a whole.
The video captures what many of us already knew. These fish aren't being revived, they are being dragged out of sight of the show's TV cameras and dumped. It's all make believe. It's not just this one tarpon. We're talking hundreds of large, breeding females. This particular fish dump just happened to take place when the PTTS got careless and didn't notice the guy with the camcorder. Or maybe they didn't really care. After nearly a decade of this nonsense, the people of Boca Grande and the surrounding area finally had enough. And that's what's happening here. We're saying enough.