IN MEMORIAM:

ALEXIS A. JACOBS

Alexis A. Jacobs passed away on Friday, June 3, 2022. She was born in Columbus, Ohio, on March 28, 1942, and once owned Columbus Fair Auto Auction, one of the largest independent automobile auctions in the United States.

Jacobs grew up in the auction business that her father established in 1958 at the Columbus Fairgrounds. After high school, she began her career in accounting, and upon her father’s passing of a heart attack in 1982, at age 40, Jacobs assumed the operating role for the business. Fierce in her intention, she was encouraged to sell the auction; instead, she forged ahead and secured a bright future for the company.

She was later named the president of the National Auto Auction Association, awarded NAAA’s Pioneer Award, was inducted to the NAAA Hall of Fame, received the Columbus Automobile Dealers Association’s Automotive Achievement Award, was inducted into the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association’s Ring of Honor, was a founder of Used Car News, and a founder of the Ohio Independent Automobile Dealers Association, among many other accomplishments, awards, and honors during her long and distinctive career.

The fishing community perhaps best knew her as a highly competitive angler, fishing on her boat, Reel Obsession. After selling the auction in 2019, Jacobs spent most of her time in Key West, Florida, with her labradoodle companion, Lucy.

CAPT. MICHAEL P. MAHON

Capt. Michael P. Mahon died on May 18, 2022, at the age of 38. Spending his childhood growing up at his parent’s beach house in Cape May, New Jersey, the ocean made a lasting impression from an early age. After serving in the US Coast Guard, Mahon started his offshore career riding along aboard South Jersey Champion with his childhood friend Capt. Jeff Thiel. “He was such a talented guy,” Thiel says. “Mike was always happy to teach a novice on the dock, and he always got excited to see them do well. Mike was super passionate about the sport and loved to travel—he really enjoyed Bermuda fishing on the Krazy Salt’s. One time we were in the canyons off New Jersey, and he told me, ‘This is where I feel the safest.’ We’re 100 miles offshore, but that’s how he felt—at home on the water.”

NOT THE RIGHT SOLUTION

As a lifelong offshore fisherman, I’ve seen a dramatic increase in the shark population over the past few years, to the point where it’s having a significant effect on billfish and tuna fisheries from Florida to the Northeast. But

I was disappointed to read in a recent online newsletter by The Billfish Foundation that they were proposing a concept to target sharks with bottom longline gear.

In a piece entitled “Laughable Government Options for Shark Depredation,” they are correct in pointing out the fact that the National Marine Fisheries Service has indeed suggested some pretty ludicrous options for fishermen to mitigate the shark problem, including “lowering engine noise, changing baits, or moving the boat to another location when sharks are spotted….” But the issue I have is where they suggest: “Another potential option would be to invest in the reinvigoration of the bottom longline shark fishery. By promoting or even rebranding the fishery, a market for low-cost protein could be revived after essentially being collapsed due to current regulations.”

When we open the door to any form of renewed interest in longlining by changing the regulations, whether directed at a certain species or not, it becomes very hard to get rid of it again. Yes, sharks are a problem. No, longlining is not the right answer.