Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
I love the internet. Seriously. Countless hours of my day are spent on the WorldWideWeb. In the morning and the evening I answer emails from my desktop. Throughout my land based work days I will reply from my smart phone or my iPad as needed. There is no way I could even think about going fishing without consulting numerous web-based weather guessing, err, I mean predicting, sites. I also utilize multiple sea surface temperature providers. Daily fishing reports from Sunset Marina, the Ocean City Fishing Center, and of course the Coastal Fisherman are reviewed. Throw in a few fishing forums and the ever popular Facebook and my day is quickly getting filled up with a whole lot of computer screen viewing. This doesn’t even take into account time spent on mixed martial arts sites, heavy metal music fan pages or the BaltimoreRavens.com page. Like I said, a whole lot of screen time. I am not even sure how I make it to a boat, let alone the ocean.
The weekend before last, I was out of town. My charter for the Mako Mania Tournament had something come up and unfortunately they had to cancel me for the event. I was unable to rebook the days, so I took one last out -of-town weekend before the summer season kicks in to full swing and I went to a concert with one of my old fishing buddies and my wife. Actually two concerts. We saw the same band (Iron Maiden) twice, one night in Virginia and one night in Philadelphia. We logged a lot of miles, swapped old fishing stories and had quite a bit of fun. But that didn’t stop me from keeping tabs on the Mako Mania Tournament. Like I said… I love the internet.
The Mako Mania Tournament holds a special place in my heart since my friend and former captain, Steve Harman, founded the tournament. I was working as Steve’s mate when he came up with the idea for the tournament and he included me in the rule writing process and asked my opinion many times in the formatting of the tournament. Steve, who was lovingly referred to as “The Big Fish” by his friends and family, has since passed on, but the Harman family and Bahia Marina make sure his legacy is preserved and continue to host this awesome event every June.
So, throughout my heavy metal road trip I made sure to keep an eye on the Coastal Fisherman website and Facebook for updates when it got close to weigh-in time each day. I must admit that it was pretty cool to be tailgating in a parking lot in Virginia and checking out pictures of makos and huge threshers as they were coming to the scales at Bahia Marina. My Dad and Chris, our third crew member on our charterboat, “Last Call”, were texting me and keeping me in the loop as far as dock gossip was concerned, and we were all monitoring the web for tournament updates. It felt like I was there. Almost. I love the internet.
After the concert ended Saturday night, my merry band of travelers fought the traffic leaving the Jiffy Lube Live venue’s terrible parking lot to return to our hotel. Since I was not behind the wheel I took the time to scan the final tournament standings for the day and check out any new pictures that were posted on Facebook. What I found was something very different than what I was expecting. Sure there were a bunch of pictures and Larry had the daily standings listed. But what really caught my eye, and the eyes of the fishing community at large, was an assault that was happening on Bahia Marina’s facebook page. People from all over the country, and even some from other countries, were posting negative reviews of the marina and making ill informed and hateful comments about the tournament.
It turns out that some extremist conservation groups happened to take notice of the event and they called for their close-minded minions to publicly trash something they obviously knew little to nothing about. What ensued was a copy and paste fiasco of misinformation and many “1 Star” ratings. Anyone who has been to Bahia Marina and Fish Tales knows what a top shelf operation both the marina and restaurant are. Likewise, anyone that has participated in Mako Mania, either as an entrant or a spectator, knows that the event is conservation minded and very well run. The things I read on facebook that night made me very angry at first, but then they made me start to laugh. These enviro-tyrants were spewing hatred and showcasing how little they actually know about sportfishermen and sportfishing in general. All they actually knew was that their beloved eco extreme supreme commander told them to hate something. So they did. You have to love the internet!!!!
The sportfishing community rallied together and helped to combat the negativity with actual facts about the tournament and a show of unity in the face of these keyboard commandos that were staging the assault. Now, a few days later, many emails have been sent to the different organizations behind this attack, and facebook has been made aware of the situation. The hateful enviro-tyrants have gone off in search of their next victim.
My loyal readers, I encourage you to take the high road on the internet, but never hesitate to defend our sport. Support organizations like the Recreational Fishing Alliance and the Ocean City Reef Foundation. These groups are actually on our side. Do research before you donate and you will find that many other so called conservation groups are in league with the same types of groups that recently attacked the Mako Mania Tournament. Take time to educate the misinformed. Let them know that you release fish not intended for the table. Let them know that you are future minded in your fishing practices and promote conservation while taking part in the sport we all love.
And share your fishing pictures and reports freely on the fishing forums and social media. Like I said. I love the internet!
Capt. Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call” and President of the Ocean City Marlin Club.
