For the past two summers, I traveled to Newport, Rhode Island, alongside hundreds of East Coast fishermen to the Monster Shark Tournament. The tournament moved to Newport in 2014 from its original location in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard. As a kid on Martha's Vineyard, I always looked forward to the tournament, but a recent town council decision deemed the tournament's drunken revelers and "circus" atmosphere inappropriate for the area.
For two days, the fishermen formed teams and left before dawn, returning to the weigh-in later that afternoon to have their daily catches judged. While the other boats waited patiently in line, a tournament staff member attached a rope to each shark's tail and hoisted it up to a white platform to be weighed; only the largest sharks were presented.
The Monster Shark Tournament uses International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) regulations to promote ethical angling practices; the stringent rules are designed to ensure that the fishing has a minimal impact on the shark population. Scientists and researchers are also on hand to collect samples, and the boats' captains can choose between keeping their catch, donating it to a local food bank, or handing it over to the researchers. The tournament provides invaluable samples for marine biologists all along the East Coast.
The event seems like a bloody affair, but it's hard to view the Monster Shark Tournament as an outright massacre. Seeing a marine biologist hack a shark's head off of the gills is brutal, but there's also something terrifyingly beautiful about looking at these creatures up close, seeing not only their strength but also their fragility.
My fond recollection of the tie-dyed, Birkenstock'ed Martha's Vineyard protesters fighting with tournament staff make it difficult to document the event as an impartial bystander, but my nostalgia and awe at the beauty of these sea giants also makes it hard to look away.
Art Vandelay Press will be releasing these photographs into a spiral bound photo book called Swamp Yankee by Maggie Shannon, available at tonight's opening at Printed Matter in NYC.
All photographs by Maggie Shannon.
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