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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 2
October 2008
Tag-a-Tiny Tourney produces giant results
GLOUCESTER, MA – The Tag-a-Tiny Tournament based in Gloucester Aug. 21-24 was a success. With good weather on their side, participating fishermen tagged and released approximately 18 juvenile bluefin tuna. Furthermore, two giants were landed and $10,000 was raised for the Large Pelagics Research Center (LPRC) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH).
A total of 52 boats participated and those fishermen, along with the sponsors and organizers – Mark Godfried, president of the North Shore Tuna Association, Richard Burgess, co-founder of RockOn Products, and his daughter, Heidi Burgess, a senior in the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s prestigious Isenberg School of Management – all had a good time.
The audience at the closing celebration dinner and awards ceremony at the Gloucester House Restaurant even surprised Godfried by singing him “Happy Birthday” – his 73rd – and feeding him chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.
Fun aside, the tournament’s main goal was to raise funds for the LPRC, whose director, Molly Lutcavage, is widely respected by fishermen. The center was formed as a partnership between UNH and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to improve management of large pelagic marine species – bluefin tuna, turtles, ocean sunfish, and others – by sponsoring programs and projects to better understand their biology.
In June, Lutcavage received word that the center would receive no NMFS funding this year.
“Rich and I felt we should do something to benefit the tuna industry,” Godfried said in explaining the thinking behind holding the tournament. “We also realized how Molly’s research has benefited us in the tuna industry and how much of her adult life she has devoted to tuna research. We further realized how much funding Molly had lost. Rich and I concluded the ideal benefactor of the tournament would be Molly.”
Lutcavage expressed her appreciation during the dinner.
“We are so grateful to Mark and Richie and their sponsors for their support. I’m very touched,” she said.
The audience responded with thundering applause.
Among those in attendance were LPRC Program Manager Nuno Fragoso and Rich Ruais, executive director of both the East Coast Tuna Association (ECTA) and Blue Water Fishermen’s Association.
Sponsors, participants
In all, 15 companies sponsored the Tag-a-Tiny Tournament. The major sponsors were: Grady White Boats, Lyon-Waugh Auto Group, First Light Anglers, and Seaboard Products Co., distributors of Anheuser-Busch products.
Other participating sponsors were: Capt. Carlo’s Restaurant, Commercial Fisheries News, Fish Law, Maguro America, New England Marine and Industrial Inc., North Shore Community Tuna Association, RockOn Products, Santini Bait & Tackle, Seaboard Products Company, The Billfish Foundation, Madfish Grill, and the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction.
Boat participants were split up into several categories. Small boat category participants (under 26') included: Barry-at-Sea, Carly, Chop-Chop, Connection, First Light, Green Hornet, Jeanne Anne, Knot Bad II, Lily Jean, Night Flyer, Pelican, Phallic Thunder, Quahog, RockOn Products’ Romeo Papa, Spoiled One, Still Crazy, Toothless, Tsunami, Tuna Repellant, and Yellow Jacket.
Large boat contenders (over 26') included: Betsy M, Callisto, Cherrystone, Dolores J, Elizabeth Ames, Hit & Run, Island Girl, Jeanne Marie, J’s Crew, Kathleen Ann, Miss Molly, Outcast, Saucy, Tracy Ann, Tree Guy, and Tuna Sutra.
Charter boat category participants included: Christina, Karen Lynn, Lady Ashley, Lady Diane, Lady J, Lily, Linda Rose, Lisa’s Jake, Sweet Dream II, and Tuna Hunter.
Awards
Gary Cannell and his Tuna Hunter took the Grand Champion award for tagging five juvenile bluefin. The Tracy Ann and crew – Dave Pullo, Brian McDevitt, and Jim Dango – landed the award in the largest bluefin category. Their dressed fish weighed 544 pounds.
“We hooked up at 5:30 pm on Middle Bank,” Pullo recalled. “We fought the fish for approximately an hour and three-quarters. He was a big fish – a beast that didn’t want to come in.”
Pullo also reported that he and his crew didn’t have any trouble with dogfish on the day they hooked the big bluefin. The Osprey landed the other giant, which dressed out at 308 pounds.
Gary Schroeder’s Saucy won the award for most tagged and released tuna in the large boat division, while Bob Freeman’s Still Crazy did so in the small boat category.
Nat Moody and Derek Spingler won the charter boat division with their First Light Charters.
The winners all received fish platters made out of jeweled aluminum by the gift wholesaler Mariposa.
Those who didn’t catch a thing during the tournament still had a good time, and at least the crew of the Cherrystone out of Gloucester, including Capt. Peter Ream, took that with humor.
“If everyone did what we did the last three days, the tuna fishery would recover very quickly,” he joked. “We struck out. We were the ultimate conservationists.”
All in all, there was a lot of enthusiasm for the event.
Said participant Joe Maletti of Gloucester, “I hope they will do this tournament every year.”
Peter K. Prybot
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