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The winning five teams Photo: Jay Lev |
Five teams will soon cast their lines in the Grand Championship Finale of the Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Challenge, an innovative shark tournament uniting sport fishing, science, business and humane interests as never before.
The event runs from May 21-23 at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, 1600 Ken Thompson Parkway in Sarasota. Aquarium visitors onshore can enjoy educational talks along with video feeds from the heart of the action.
The Challenge is a catch-and-release only competition off the Southwest Florida coast in which fishermen compete by catching sharks and Mote scientists tag the sharks for conservation research purposes to learn more about the animals' travels in the wild.
The Challenge is designed to be a "next generation" model for shark fishing competitions, supporting shark protection while providing the excitement that spectators and anglers have come to expect.
Nine teams competed in a qualifying round out of Burnt Store Marina in Punta Gorda. Their catches included an 8-foot, 2-inch bull shark, which Mote scientists tagged with a satellite transmitter to monitor its movements in real time.
To attend the Grand Championship Finale, please RSVP to Hayley Rutger, Public Relations Specialist, at 941-374-0081 or hrutger@mote.org.