Shark Tournament's James Meets with Oak Bluffs Board

Why did it take till Thursday for Steve James to meet the Oak Bluffs Board of Selectmen, when he's been holding his Monster Shark Fishing Tournament in the town for years?

"It’s the first time I’ve been invited to a selectman’s meeting in seven years," James said at the outset of the special meeting, which drew about two dozen audience members and a handful of Island media.

Oak Bluffs resident Sam Low was there and contributed his notes in comments on an earlier article. An augmented version of Low's account follows below; please watch our videos to see and hear Steve James and Oak Bluffs Harbormaster Todd Alexander in their own words. 

Selectmen Walter Vail and Gail Barmakian questioned James about the purpose of the event: Is it to attract spectators or entrants?

There are two crowds, James told them, the fishermen and the spectators. His crowd are the entrants, he said, but he has no control over the spectators.

"The people partying on the moorings are not my customer base," James said.

Among other points made by James during the meeting:

• He is too busy running the tournament to monitor what spectators are doing in other parts of the waterfront.
• The size of the fishing fleet has decreased - it is about a third the size it was a few years ago, due to the economy, the costs of the entry fee, fuel, food and lodging for the crew - and to the fact that ESPN is no longer televising the event.
• Catch and release shark tournaments don't attract any interest or attention (see video).

No more free raft-outs

Rowdy spectators are a big part of the problem during the shark tournament, selectmen said. 

"There are outsiders here that we have never seen before," said Selectman Michael Santoro. "It's an element this town doesn't want to see."

Oak Bluffs traditionally charges for one boat on a mooring and the rest who raft out, sometimes as many as six to a mooring, are free. The town therefore loses money while encouraging rowdy mooring parties in an overcrowded harbor.

This year, Harbormaster Todd Alexander will charge the extra boats as a way of both making money for the town and decreasing the number of spectator boats in the harbor.

Alexander said that the partying had increased in the last four years or so and had now hit a tipping point. “It is a scene now,” he said. “They come here to party. The word is out, this is the place to be.”

Selectperson Barmakian asked if the event could be held in June or September when it might be of more benefit to the business community and when the town is not so crowded. But that won’t work, according to Mr. James, due to conflicts with other fishing events and the fact that the fish are not as plentiful in those months.

Protest zone suggested

To reduce the chance of encounters between spectators and protestors, James suggested that a special place be set aside for the protestors apart from tournament fans.

There were about 20 animal activists in the crowd at the weigh station last year, James told selectmen.

"It doesn’t seem to me that it makes a lot of sense let those people get so close to that crowd," he said.

Oak Blufs police Sgt. Mike Marchand, asked by selectmen what he thought of separating protesters from the tournament spectators, said he supported it for safety reasons.

"Last year there were a couple of bottles thrown," Marchand said.

But members of the audience questioned the concept on free speech grounds, leading board chair Kathleen Burton to say "Freedom of speech and public safety: That’s all we care about."

More outreach needed

To control the crowds, James told the board, "you have got to reach out to the bars and taverns."

It is not the tournament entrants who are creating problems with public drinking and other rowdy behavior, he said: They come to fish.

James added that he doesn't market the tournament himself: The Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce does the marketing, he said.

“Oak Bluffs and the Chamber are working at cross purposes,” he said,

“Oak Bluffs wants to decrease the crowds and the Chamber is promoting the event on their website.”

Toning down the ego-crushing

By the end of the meeting, James had agreed not to sell event T-shirts on town property, to moderate his tone on the weigh station public-address system — which in past years he's used to, in his words, "crush the egos" of animal-rights protesters — and to encourage tournament participants and spectators not to violate open container laws.

The Monster Shark Fishing Tournament takes place July 18, 19 and 20, 2013. Next week, Oak Bluffs voters will take up a non-binding referendum on making future tournaments catch and release, which James said would take away virtually all interest in the event.

Please see our video for James's comments on catch-and-release shark tournaments, and click "Keep me posted" below to be notified when we publish more news about the shark tournament.

Got something to say about sharks, the shark tournament or anything else of interest on Martha's Vineyard? Post a blog and share your views.

For more about the tournament, please see:

• Shark Tourney Chief to Meet with OB
• Oak Bluffs Demands Meeting with "Monster Shark" Chief
• Shark Tournament Organizer Bites Back
• Photo Gallery: Monster Shark Tournament
• Monster Shark Tournament: Awesome or Awful?

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