Council Gives Green Light to Monster Shark Tournament

The City Council last week gave the go-ahead for the Monster Shark Tournament — one of the largest and most widely-recognized sport fishing tournaments in the country — to operate out of Newport this summer.

The vote to authorize the Boston Big Game Fishing Club a special event license to use Casey's Marina for weigh-ins and other activities on the weekend of July 17 to 21 came after an emotional plea by Lloyd James of the fishing club.

James, uncle to the late and former head of the club, Steve James, who died unexpectedly on a duck hunting trip in January, said his nephew's goal before he died was to bring the tournament to Newport and assured the council that the event will not bring problems to the city.

"This is not just a drunken shark tournament," James said. "This is representative of the biggest shark tournament on the Northeast coast."

James said he was trying to fulfill his nephew's dream to move the tournament from Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard to Newport after a lengthy and protracted debate there that pitted the tournament against locals who were increasingly upset about traffic and crowds associated with the event.

James held up a T-shirt that his nephew designed last year that contained a hidden message encoded with sailing flags. If translated, it read "Newport," — a message that his nephew embedded on the shirt to reflect his vision to move the event to the City by the Sea.

Councilor Justin S. McLaughlin said he was opposed to the plan and said he didn't think the event meshed with Newport's brand as a cultural and historic destination.

"It doesn't seem like it's reinforcing the brand of Newport as a cultural, historic city," McLaughlin said. "We have a lot going on in the city. . .and I do not believe this is the kind of thing we want to see in the newspaper."

The problem, McLaughlin said, isn't necessarily the behavior of the fishermen who will be out fishing for sharks. Instead, it's the "hundreds of people who come to town and do not behave as well as they should behave," which could tax police and firefighters during the busy summer season.

Third Ward Councilor Kathryn E. Leonard said she could see both sides of the issue. She noted that the cost to enter the tournament is high and that makes it a fairly exclusive sport. As someone who owns a house in Martha's Vineyard, she said the word on the street is that the big problem isn't the fishermen, but the "yahoos that come and stay at the big hotel across the street and have themselves a good ole extended Jaws party."

But Councilor-at-large Michael Farley noted that even if the council rejected the special event license for use of the dock, there's nothing to stop the Monster Shark Tournament from happening. In fact, rejecting the license, he warned, would prevent the city from having the ability to thoroughly review the fishing club's plans for the weekend as the permit merely covered the weigh-ins on the dock, not the event itself.

That fact was confirmed by City Solicitor Joseph J. Nicholson, who said that the point of a special event license is to give the city reviewing authority for public events. He said Farley's characterization was accurate in the sense that the city could not stop the tournament from happening in local waters, nor could it stop people from coming to Newport to catch the action.

Denying the permit would simply force the weigh-ins to be a private event, the solicitor said.

"The whole idea [of the permit] is that in an event of this magnitude, it may have an impact on our infrastructure, police and fire and we need to know when those types of events occur to see if we can handle them," Nicholson said. 

As a result, the council approved the permit on condition police and fire officials sign off on the fishing club's safety plans.

The weigh-ins tend to be the busiest and most popular aspect of the tournament as throngs come in the hopes of seeing big sharks come off the boats.

But James said the tournament isn't just a bloody affair. In fact, he said, there will be a biologist on hand and nowadays, fishermen are encouraged to tag and release. He mentioned a shark that was tagged in 2005 in Martha's Vineyard that was picked up off the tip of Florida by a satellite last year. And the tournament will work closely with fishery officials, Stevens pledged.

And he said the captains and crews won't give the city any problem. They're bringing their families and are spending thousands to participate in the tournament. That in turn will pour money into the local economy, he said, and organizers claim that figure can reach upwards of $4 million.

Another concern is the timing of the event, which is happening on the same weekend as the Save the Bay Swim. Though images of sharks being lured by fishermen near hundreds of swimmers paints a troublesome picture, James said he's already spoken with the Harbormaster and said there would be no problem.

Councilor Naomi Neville said she'd like some assurance that swimmers would be safe as part of the city's review of the plans before the OK is finalized.