Tarpon have been called prehistoric, but the real dinosaurs may be the organizers of the Suncoast Tarpon Roundup. Though the contest has a release division, it is the only tarpon event in Florida that still has a dead-fish weigh-in division as well.

Numerous tarpon tournaments from Boca Grande to the Florida Keys show that an all-release format works well to determine a winner.

According to Florida tarpon kill-tag stats, 94 percent of tarpon killed last year in all of Florida by anglers possessing a $50 tarpon kill tag came from this 10-week-long tournament. That amounts to 46 dead tarpon, entered for cash and prizes.

Understandably, tarpon anglers statewide question the continuation of this practice. Reportedly, organizers and board members of the 250-member nonprofit Suncoast Tarpon Roundup, Inc. abandoned their plans to go to an all-release format because it would not be “cost-effective.”

“The members and board overwhelmingly opposed any change,” said tournament director Clark Nash. This is the way things have been done for 71 years and that is the way they want it to be.”

This attitude has drawn criticism from sponsors, environmental groups, Bonefish Tarpon Unlimited, and St. Petersburg’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. The tournament’s Web site states that the 2004 Roundup benefited Tampa Bay Watch, a nonprofit environmental group dedicated to habitat preservation and restoration. However, the group’s executive claims that after receiving $1,500 from the Roundup during a previous year, it received no donated funds from the tournament in 2004. And the Fish and Wildlife Institute has told tournament organizers that a dead tarpon is not as valuable as information from one that has been released.

Clark Nash and his wife Karen, the tournament president, claim the event loses money, and its large geographical boundaries make it prohibitively expensive to employ “live-weigh” floating barges like those used in one-day tarpon events.

FS