Billfish changes bring more boats

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL - It would be naïve to think any event, no matter its stature and tradition, is immune to controversy.
   
Change is inevitable in maintaining a balance and in securing the future. Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament Director Scott Burt understands, however, that sometimes change can be viewed adversely, as it was this year.
   
The Bay Point event went completely to catch and release in the blue marlin category in 2008. The competition fleet diminished to 47 boats, in large part due to hefty fuel prices and the new format.
   
Invitations for this year's tournament went out on April 1. Burt declined to give precise numbers, but said several groups of anglers declined to enter given the catch-and-release rule.
   
Burt and the tournament committee reinstated weighed blue marlin as an optional entry earlier this week.
   
On Thursday, he said the response to the change was well received and should bolster the size of next month's fleet.
   
"The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive across the board," Burt said Friday. "Some entered immediately and I was really surprised, to be honest.
   
"I didn't realize just how strong their feelings were toward having that option. I was caught a little bit off-guard."
   
There's a possibility this year's fleet could creep back toward the maximum range of 71 boats for the event scheduled for July 16-19. Burt again hesitated in providing exact numbers but conceded that there's a threshold of the lowest number of boats the tournament could host and remain afloat.
   
"You just don't want participants not coming," Burt said. "Without the participants, you can't find the sponsors, and without the sponsors, you can't raise the money for the charities."
   
The entry fee for a 71st boat, if entered, and all remaining revenue after winnings and expenses, goes to the St. Joe Community Foundation, which serves charities in Bay, Franklin, Gulf and Walton counties.
   
Healthy participation ensures the tournament won't be in the red, and Burt doesn't believe any trouble is on the horizon. The move to bring back weighed blue marlin was part of the aim to make sure Bay Point celebrates another 26 years.
   
Burt is aware there are detractors who are critical of sport fishing. He addressed those who might think the Invitational has gone back on its commitment to conservation. Burt made it a point to say last year, and still believes that catch and release is the future of large offshore fishing tournaments.
   
Burt said the Bay Point tournament still is focused on conservation and maintains a close working relationship with the Billfish Foundation.
   
"This is a hybrid and what we have now is the exact opposite of what we had years ago," Burt said. "Back then, we had a kill tournament with the optional catch and release. Now we have a release tournament with the optional weighed category.
   
"The fact of the matter is we're still all about conservation. But we're also all about listening to the people who have participated in this in the past and who will continue to do so in the future."
   
Some maintain that sport fishing has depleted the blue marlin population, not only in the Atlantic Region but around the world. Marlins killed in tournaments are only a small part of the total lost each year, said Dr. Eric Prince, Fisheries Research Scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
   
"Tournaments have never historically been a major source of mortality for blue marlin," Prince said. "They aren't the ones putting the population at risk. That's done by harvesters."
   
Much of the damage is done by commercial longline fishing boats from foreign countries such as Spain, Mexico and Japan, he said. 
   
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), which catalogs data on marlin, sailfish and other tuna-like species, recorded 2,229 blue marlin landings by longline fishermen in 2007 in the Atlantic Region. Those landed in the sport category, which includes tournaments, was 36.
   
Prince said the blue marlin population is overfished. He said it's difficult to determine if blue marlin are endangered given how vast the oceans are, and because they are found worldwide.
   
The ICCAT noted in the organization's most recent assessment in 2006 that "several abundance indicators suggest that the decline (in blue marlin population) has been partially arrested," and that current management plans have the potential to recover the stocks of blue marlin. Confirmation would require four or five more years of data, according to ICCAT.
   
Prince said the Bay Point Invitational's choice to increase the minimum tournament length of blue marlin to 103 inches better assures an older fish being brought to the weigh-in scale. He added that having the winner-take-all format avoids unnecessary kills as long as anglers are notified of catches to compare theirs to during the course of the event.
   
Burt said instant notification has been a practice at the Invitational for many years. Everyone knows if and when a blue marlin is coming in. And when one is, Burt said it energizes the spectators.
   
"There's a ripple of excitement that goes through that crowd when they hear there's a blue," Burt said. "I experienced it first hand as a spectator at the Isle of Capri Tournament in Biloxi (Miss.).
   
"I spent the whole weekend as an observer, and when they announced they had a blue marlin, you could feel that electricity and see the crowd get excited. There's nothing like it anywhere else."