There has recently been a call by Oak Bluffs voters for thoughtful discussion around the many issues surrounding the Monster Shark Tournament. During last week’s selectman’s meeting, selectman Michael Santoro suggested that the town should consider asking for a portion of the gambling payouts called Calcuttas as a way of generating town funds to offset the increased security costs associated with sponsoring the shark tournament.

Citing unruly crowds and a drain on town resources, Oak Bluffs selectmen Tuesday called for changes to the annual Monster Shark tournament held at the Oak Bluffs harbor, including a greater police presence and working more closely with event organizers. But selectmen voted against putting a petition to change the tournament to catch-and-release only on next year’s town election ballot, which will require petitioners to gather support from 10 per cent of registered voters.

In denying the 10-person petition to place on the April ballot a resolution that the Monster Shark Tournament become a completely catch-and-release event, the Oak Bluffs selectmen have actually done the opponents of the event a favor. Now they must gather signatures of at least 10 per cent of the Oak Bluffs registered voters, and therein lies an opportunity.

Jawsfest: The Tribute has received numerous questions regarding our Summer for the Sharks conservation initiative, with people wondering if we are against the Boston Big Game Monster Shark Tournament that begins this week. The answer to this question is no; however, we would like to see that tournament convert to a catch-and-release event, as is happening with many such tournaments today. As a local business owner, who also runs TicketsMV.com, I fully appreciate the revenue derived by local businesses from events. I also appreciate that select shark populations have declined by a frightening 90 per cent in the last 40 years.

I am writing to share some observations with regard to my protest activities against the Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament last Saturday afternoon. Between the hours of 2 and 4 p.m. I paddled my kayak with attached non-confrontational signs throughout the harbor. My goal was to present the shark fishermen and spectators with the reality that shark populations worldwide have decreased by 90 per cent over the past 40 years and that this tournament should become a catch-and-release event.

Learjets on final approach ride wakes of noise, the whoosh of traffic throbs off the seawall and the wail of the lumpen mob soars over Circuit avenue.

It’s summer.

It’s time for the earnest toilers of commerce to harvest the golden hordes. In fact, it’s July 21 and the Monster Shark Tournament is in Oak Bluffs and with it the yahoos in their plastic boats, rafted up three, four to a mooring — hundreds of them bobbing in the crowded harbor.

After a weekend that the police chief called one of the busiest in years, with several fights and more than 20 arrests, Oak Bluffs police and town officials said they are looking at better ways to manage the crowds that come to the town for the annual monster shark tournament.

“Our calls for service were way up, our incidents were way up, at times we were pretty much overwhelmed on Saturday night,” Oak Bluffs police chief Erik Blake told the selectmen at their meeting Tuesday.

As the sport-fishing boat Cookie Too backed into the slip in Oak
Bluffs harbor on Saturday evening, nervous chatter rippled through the
onlookers who had congregated around the dock.

The simmering heat of a July weekend served as the backdrop on a
cold December night this week when the Oak Bluffs selectmen debated the
future of the Monster Shark tournament, one of the town's biggest
events of the summer.

Even on an Island that knows a little something about shark
hysteria, the upcoming Boston Big Game Fishing Club Monster Shark
tournament is a frenzied event.