See You in Court

Cue the lawyers!

The Professional Tarpon Tournament Series (PTTS) have gone to court in an attempt to silence Save The Tarpon, Inc. and its more than 20,000 members and supporters.

Silver King Entertainment, Inc., which operates the PTTS, is seeking an emergency injunction against the organization in a 235 page civil complaint filed April 29 in Sarasota County Circuit Court. In addition to the injunction aimed at restraining Save The Tarpon, Inc. and its board members from speaking out on issues concerning the PTTS and the Boca Grande tarpon fishery, Silver King Entertainment, Inc. is seeking unspecified damages from the non-profit advocacy group and selected members of its board of directors.

LINK

A Line Drawn

Captain Chris Frohlich on the community efforts to ban the Boca Grande tarpon jig.

A line has been drawn in the sand. I believe that on one side is the moral high ground, a rich history, respect, and tradition. On the other side sits a group of opportunistic vultures, ready to poach when the time is right. They have long since abandoned any moral compass that they once used to guide their way. They are merely pawns, following the gospel of a few greedy individuals who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of fortune.

LINK (via: Save the Tarpon)

Help the cause by picking up a Save the Tarpon tee.

They are still spear fishing for tarpon off Louisiana

Fly Life Magazine is calling out Hells Divers and their members who like to spear fish for tarpon off the coast of Louisiana.

As the comment thread in this 2008 post about the same issue illustrates, the spear fishing community will aggressively push back.

In what has to be one of the more ironic comments, given Save the Tarpon is getting involved, tarpon spear fishing advocate Louis Rossignol references the PTTS to call bullshit on those opposed to the practice.

For those that want to judge, take a look at that completely ridiculous circus they call the “Professional Tarpon Tournament Series”, where boats cram into the pass, live bait tarpon and feed half of them to the local hammerhead population. The ones that escape the big teeth get dragged over to a scale and then released, exhausted, to said hammerhead-infested pass.

In this video Rossignol,who owns 5 of the top ten Hells Divers tarpon spear fishing records, drills a triple digit tarpon off a gulf rig.

The PTTS dead (err… we mean sleeping) tarpon cover-up

This video was filmed on June 17, 2012 during the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series (PTTS) Tarpon Cup Championship. Unlike all other PTTS events, no DNA samples were taken by the PTTS during this event. 

For more of the story, read this.

Boycott the businesses and brands standing behind the PTTS in 2013.

Boycott Reactor Watches

Tell Reactor to stop supporting the PTTS.

Save the Tarpon Shindig

From Save the Tarpon:

The Save the Tarpon Shindig, is an event for us all to come together as we celebrate our solidarity and dedication to protecting the future of tarpon fishing at Boca Grande. We will review our achievements thus far, and look to the future as we plan our 2013 successes. It will be a time for supporters to rally, meet the Save the Tarpon Directors, bump elbows with most of the local captains and community members as well as enjoy the company of a few special guests.

Date: Sunday, March 3, 2013

Time: 2 to 6 pm

Location: The outdoor grounds of the Louise duPont Crowninshield Community House

Address: 131 Banyan St., Boca Grande, FL 33921

(adjacent to the Boca Grande Community Park Grounds)

Directions click here.