Shark hunt fuels uproar on isle where Jaws filmed
On Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts island where the aquatic villain in the 1975 film Jaws menaced swimmers, some residents now say sharks need protection from humans.
Voters in the town of Oak Bluffs passed a measure calling for the annual Monster Shark Tournament that began this week to be the last contest where the animals can be killed and strung up by their tails, a tradition that draws thousands to the island home of financier Steven Rattner and actor Ted Danson. Though non-binding, the measure is pitting residents against merchants and biggame fishermen who travel from as far as Texas to chase some of the ocean’s largest predators.
“It has turned into a spectacle and a frat-party scene,” said Gail Barmakian, one of five selectmen representing Oak Bluffs, which sits on a harbour lined with gingerbread-style homes. The town becomes unrecognizable during the fourday tournament, she said, with drunks sleeping on sidewalks and broken beer bottles piled under benches.
To pay for police and municipal resources strained during the contest, Oak Bluffs has added a $225 docking fee for the tournament and an extra $40 daytime mooring fee for spectators. Last year, police made 21 arrests, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Times.
In a nation so fascinated by sharks that more than one million viewers tuned into the Syfy channel this month for Sharknado, a disaster movie, the island’s shift in attitude represents a victory, even if symbolic, said Wendy Benchley, the widow of Jaws author Peter Benchley.
“We love our monsters,” said Benchley, president of the board of the New Yorkbased Shark Savers conservation group. “But the culture has changed. To have a kill tournament at this time in the life of the ocean just sends the message to the public and the youth that it is OK to kill our apex predators that are in trouble around the world.”
Peter Benchley set the novel in the fictitious summer resort town of Amity, N.Y., on Long Island. Director Steven Spielberg moved the location to New England and shot most of the film on Martha’s Vineyard.
Steve James, owner of the Boston Big Game Fishing Club, which runs the tournament, said conservationists’ concerns are misguided. The sharks caught aren’t endangered and only 16 were taken last year, he said. Moreover, accusations about revelry should be levelled at 20-something partiers, not the fishermen who rise at dawn to chase the elusive shark, James said. Should the town selectmen enforce the catch-and-release measure next year, he threatened to tell contestants to drop their captured sharks near the shoreline.
“How exciting would it be to have hundreds of sharks in Oak Bluffs Harbor?” he said with a laugh. “That is what catch-and-release is about.”
Protests began after a photograph from the 2005 tournament broadcast by national media brought attention to shark fishing and scrutiny from animal-rights activists, according to James.
The picture showed a 540-kilogram tiger shark caught by a fisherman that was brought to the dock minutes after the tournament deadline had expired.
Since then, groups such as the Washington-based Humane Society and New Zealand’s Earthrace Conservation have shown up in Martha’s Vineyard to protest.
Entry fees are $1,475 per boat, and about 80 are expected to participate this year. Fishing begins at 7 a.m. Friday and at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Contest rules allow participants to catch only three types of shark — the thresher, with its distinctive ribbonlike tail; the shortfin mako, the fastest species; and the porbeagle, a stout-bodied fish favoured by sportsmen.