WILMINGTON -- Registration began Friday for the Greater Wilmington King Mackerel Tournament.
Organizers started setting up Friday morning. Registration began at noon.
The top prize in this weekend's tournament is $25,000.
Event organizers say the main reason for the competition is to get families together.
Fishing starts bright and early Saturday morning. Weigh-in is also Saturday at two o'clock at the Dockside Restaurant and Marina off Airlie Road.
Senseless Killing
Why are people allowed to continue to harm, maim and kill in such a seneless way these fish? What is the sport in this?
Is it not enough that these fish are listed as being poisoned from the mercury that we in the U.S. have created and duumped on them?
Who needs these fish to survive? Certainly not the men in the $100 thousand dollar boats out there chasing these fish down and interrupting their natural cycle of life.
Just amounts to more killing. PETA should protest these events!
Fishin'
Come on now, this PETA stuff is a *little* out of control. Next they're going to have PETV (people for the ethical treatment of veggies) because someone heard a tomato sandwich scream. Fishing was once the backbone of our entire coast before it turned into a place for filthy rich retired folks and drug addicts. Maybe you should protest them and leave the guys trying to catch a fish alone.
And don't think for a second every one of these guys has a knife in hand ready to slice a big steak off these fish once they're weighed in. Hang out at the docks after a tourney, there's a lot of good eatin' out there.
PETV rally!
Kings and mercury
Kings are a sportfish that brings millions of dollars to the NC economy during the King Mack pro sponsored fishing events. The prizes are awarded for the largest fish(s) by weight and these are the very fish we, the public are warned about consuming by the Marine Fisheries.
These larger fish have the accumulated mercury levels that make eating them dangerous for pregnant women and those of child bearing age, and limited consumptions for eveyone else but the crusty old men fishing for them.
What happens to these caught and weighed fish? Who eats them? Technically, almost any way to dispose of these collected fish in that large a quantity would equal a mercury contaminated spill site that would have to be treated as an environmental hazard. So, what do they do with them?
For the majority of these
For the majority of these tournaments, each and every one of the fish that is weighed in is aged, sexed, and then sold for food. In every tournament that I have been involved with, the money earned has been donated to charity.
A little knowledge is a powerful thing.