Fishing Rodeo Proves Invaluable for Marine Biologists

Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo in Biloxi

For the past sixty years fisherman from all across the state have been traveling to the Gulf Coast to take part in one of the largest free fishing tournaments in the world. MPB’s Phoebe Judge has more.

It’s over 95 degrees at the Point Cadet Marina in Biloxi, and Michael Casano president of the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo is standing under a tent next to a long row of brightly colored fish laying on a bed of ice,

“This is where we display all the larger fish that we catch in the division, like there are the amberjacks, king mackerel, barracuda, we have a nice size barracuda.”

The 61st annual Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo brings tens of thousands of spectators to watch a thousand registered fishermen compete for the largest fish in 24 divisions of salt and freshwater species. The fish that are too large for the main tent are kept out back in what is known as the shark bin. Casano says the lack of rainwater this spring has made the saltwater salinity high, which brings sharks in closer to shore,

“You can see alligator gars, there's a hammerhead shark, there’s some tiger sharks in there. These two guys are marine biologists that are picking through the fish and taken samples.”

Steven George, with the Army Corps of Engineers, is removing the ear bones from an alligator gar to determine the fishes age. He says the fishing rodeo is a biologist’s dream,

“I mean to look at this kind of fish. I am always in the field sampling fish but most of the fish that I catch are small, but to go and put the work in to catching these fish this is a great opportunity and an excellent resource to collect data on the fishes.”

And it isn’t just the biologists that benefit from the rodeo, after the fish have been weighed in and checked a portion are donated to local charities for food.