While we love any outdoor television, here's one program we're happy to hear won't be produced: Execs had proposed a trio of made-for-tv tarpon fishing tournaments in Florida that would be nationally televised. But a passionate community of local anglers and fishing guides worked together to shut down the series in order to protect their dwindling fish populations.
The Sport Fishing Championship series is a circuit of fishing tournaments specifically created and intended as television content, airing regularly on the CBS Sports Network and on the series' website. The series, usually focusing on billfish and blue water events, has gained a large following of anglers.
The tarpon series would've been a new endeavor and was positioned as a way to highlight the tarpon fishery in the South Florida region.
But local resistance only saw red flags: "The tarpon fishery is struggling. It's getting harder and harder to catch tarpon because there are fewer of them," Capt. Ted Wilson, the commodore of the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association, told Hatch.
Hurting Tarpon Populations
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Andrew Tipler, president of the Lower Keys Guide Association, expressed concern about what the high-profile SFC tournament series would do to an already-hurting tarpon population.
"We're not seeing the numbers of fish we saw even just a few years ago and, as someone who takes anglers out every day looking for these fish, that should mean something," Tipler told Hatch.
Tarpon are not commercially harvested in the United States, so population data is lacking, but experts all agree the tarpon population is seemingly in decline.
Other countries that do harvest tarpon commercially do keep records, though: The noticeable population decline along the Atlantic coast has landed tarpon a spot on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "red list" of threatened species. Several factors are at play, including climate change and habit degradation.
Benefit Versus Cost
Despite the SFC tournament being run out of town, there are other tarpon tournaments still are occurring in South Florida. And those tournaments do bring in significant revenue for area businesses.
"We look at each tournament as a way to showcase the resource and connect communities and people to that resource," SFC Commissioner and CEO Mark Neifeld told Hatch. "Our track record speaks for itself. It's all about the fish, the communities and conservation."
The three communities that were slated to host tournaments—including Islamorada, Sarasota and Charlotte Harbor—are well-known tarpon towns. But, according to guides, this particular tournament was just too much of a liability for the local tarpon population.
"This series was flawed from the beginning," Capt. Benny Blanco said. "Tarpon were selected because they sell, not because the fishery is healthy. In fact, the tarpon fishery has been in decline for over a decade. The locations were selected because they sell, not because the habitat and watershed can withstand additional pressure and attention. Live streaming was selected, because it sells. However, live streaming is terrible for the resource, the guide community, and the sport."
While it's hard to give up the revenue potential, we're glad to see this win for our waters.
READ MORE: Watch This Guy Attract Huge Fish To His Dock With a Green Light
