The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I see where a letter writer to The Tribune was sickened by your front page photo on June 7, headed “Sport or Slaughter”, and environmentalist Sam Duncombe has taken the sportsmen to task remarking that it is “absolutely ludicrous” that the capture of the country’s national fish is allowed in such events, adding that “these bloody tournaments” need to stop.

The photo to which they refer shows the capture and weighing of a magnificent Blue Marlin caught at Walker’s Cay and posted on the Walkers Cay Facebook page.

Oh how times have changed – at one time it was Bimini’s annual Big Game tournament that put The Bahamas on the map. And I recall at the time of the annual tournament to see such photos — to which today’s Bahamians object – during tournament season published in The Tribune.

Bimini was the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea”. Hemingway made Bimini his second home and his grandson years later participated in the tournaments sponsored by the Big Game Club at Bimini. As a matter of fact, this is what put Bimini on the map of the world.

The Big Game Fishing Club, was founded in 1955 by the late Neville Stuart. I have an article written by the late Larry Smith in which he records that it was Hemingway who persuaded Mr Stuart to acquire a Prohibition era bar called “Fountain of Youth” and offer accommodation to anglers. He called it the Anchors Aweigh Hotel.

“After the second world war Stuart began organising fishing tournaments, and operated the island’s iconic mailboat — The Bimini Gal, which sank in 1972. In 1955 he built the Big Game Club, whose marina was the sportsfishing headquarters of the Bahamas for years,” wrote Larry Smith.

Even I remember when it was reported that the late President Roosevelt visited in his large yacht during those years — of course, I would not know if he did any fishing, but Bimini in those days was certainly the place to be.

During that period I would see many photos — like the one objected to by The Tribune reader and reEarth President Mrs Sam Duncombe – published in The Tribune.

How the times and attitudes have changed.

OLD TIMER

Nassau,

June 2021