Wedgeport’s tuna sport fishing history
The following is an historical recap of Wedgeport’s tuna sport fishing industry. Taken from the Wedgeport Tuna Tournament and Festival website.
From 1935 to the mid 1960s, Wedgeport was once the sport tuna fishing capitol of the world. Rod and reel tuna fishing began in 1935 when Michael Lerner, accompanied by his guide Tommy Gifford, were told there were plenty of tuna off Wedgeport.
Many fishermen made fun of him but he managed to convince Évée Leblanc to bring him out fishing. To everybody’s surprise, he caught five bluefin during his first visit to Wedgeport.
Two years later, in 1937, Wedgeport saw the birth of the International Tuna Cup match organized by S. Kip Farrington, Jr. After 1937, some 28 different countries participated in the International Tuna Cup match.
During the International Tuna Cup matches, the winning team would be awarded the Alton B. Sharp Cup, the fifth oldest cup in international sport. The tournament stopped in
1976, said at the time due to a lack of fish.
In 2004, 28 years after the tournament was stopped in Wedgeport, it was revived. A small group of Wedgeport residents integrated the tuna tournament with the Yarmouth Shark Scramble. No fish were caught that year but Wedgeport did not give up, and the following year, two bluefin were landed. By 2008, 16 bluefin tuna were landed.
Each year, the South West Nova Tuna Association allots 3,200 pounds of its commerical quota for bluefin tuna to be caught during the tournament. This allows, on average, 10 Bluefin.
The biggest bluefin landed since the tournament’s revival was 796 pounds, caught in 2014 by the Atlantic Angler.
The largest tuna landed in the 2017 tournament was a 703-pound bluefin tuna which landed aboard the fishing vessel Capitaine Simon.
You can also learn more about Wedgeport’s tuna history by visiting the Wedgeport Tuna Museum.