Montauk Pioneer - June 19, 2009

"Jaws" was a great movie. My husband, the late and great actor Roy Scheider, was justifiably proud to have starred in it. The mechanical shark he 'fought' on location was such a mythic caricature of an actual shark that the filmmakers nicknamed him "Bruce". Like Stephen King's monster dog "Cujo," "Bruce" was a mechanical hollywood gizmo, who resembles a real shark about as much as "Cujo" resembles your own dog. And yet, while no one would dare suggest we celebrate the recreational killing of dogs, in this tournament here on Long Island sharks are treated as though they are fantasy machines, not living, breathing, vitally important creatures who are absolutely essential to the health of our global environment and who are facing -- many of them -- total extinction within our lifetime.

This weekend, the Montauk shark tournament, once again, is promoting the senseless slaughter of these valuable animals .Their place in our environment is every bit as sacred and vital as our own.

I know what Roy would say. He would say that only make-believe heroes kill make-believe monsters. Real heroes save real animals. Let's be heroes - be at the protest on June 20th, 4-5PM, at the intersection of West Lake Drive and Star Island Drive in Montauk.

Thanks, Brenda Siemer Scheider

Shark tournaments is a sensitive issue in Montauk, with both sides having very strong feelings. My position is strongly in favor of shark tournaments with a high degree of regulation, which I believe is the current status of the sport.

Although I don't personally shark fish, it's completely clear that shark fishing is important to a lot of people, good for Montauk, and last I checked, hunting animals while following the rules is still very much legal.

There is not one fisherman that I know who is in favor of no regulation regarding this activity. All of them understand the importance of following the rules and that if they fish too much, then that could mean an end to the sharks in the water.

It would be terrible if our laws became so strict that a basic human activity like hunting becomes illegal. What's next? Are we going to outlaw fishing tournaments because those are too cruel? If the sharks that were caught during these tournaments were on the endangered species list, I'd be saying something different, but they aren't endangered and the tournaments are highly regulated.

I'm also ironically happy that there are people against it, because if there weren't, there would be too many ugly people willing to make it completely un-regulated and would be more than happy to fish sharks into extinction. Allowing anything to go unchecked leads to a negative result. This is true with fishing, hunting, politics and just about anything else. So I'm also happy that the protestors are there in full force, making sure that shark fishing never gets out of hand like it has in the past.