The Boston Big Game Fishing Club’s Monster Shark Tournament has been given the go-ahead by the Rhode Island Newport City Council.
The special event license allows the group to use Casey’s Marina for weigh-ins July 17 to 21.
Fishing club member Lloyd James gave an emotional plea to allow the tournament in memory of his late uncle Steve James ,who was the former head of the club.
“This is not just a drunken shark tournament,” James told the Newport Patch. “This is representative of the biggest shark tournament on the Northeast coast.”
He said the event would not bring trouble to the city and one of his uncle’s goals was to bring the tournament to Newport.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s reinforcing the brand of Newport as a cultural, historic city,” Councilor Justin S. McLaughlin said in opposition of the event. “We have a lot going on in the city. . .and I do not believe this is the kind of thing we want to see in the newspaper.”
He added that he didn’t see the fisherman as a problem, as they would be on the water, but did see an issue with the “hundreds of people who come to town and do not behave as well as they should behave.” The large collection of people could out a burden on municipal service.
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Councilor-at-large Michael Farley implied that denying the permit would have no effect on the tournament as the group could simply offer a private weigh-in and the public could still attend.However, if the permit were approved, the city would have the advantage of reviewing the fishing clubs plans for the weekend.
“The whole idea [of the permit] is that in an event of this magnitude, it may have an impact on our infrastructure, police and fire and we need to know when those types of events occur to see if we can handle them,” City Solicitor Joseph J. Nicholson said.
Steven’s added that the event would not be a bloody affair and there would be a biologist on hand.
Before the event is finalized several councilors requested assurances that there would be no chumming near the Save the Bay Swim, which is scheduled for the same weekend.
