May 21, 2021 — The COVID-19 restrictions on personal protections and public gatherings are easing. They just didn’t ease in time to save this summer’s Bluefin Blowout tuna fishing tournament.
The organizers of the popular Gloucester-based tournament, which raised $366,000 in charitable donations in the last year the tournament was held in 2019, have canceled the 2021 tournament that was to run July 29 to 31 at the Cape Ann’s Marina Resort off Essex Avenue.
It would have been the ninth year the tournament was held. Now, it is the second consecutive year it has been canceled because of the pandemic and its impacts.
“As restrictions to the COVID pandemic loosen up, it is apparent that we have to make a decision based on current conditions facing the tournament,” Warren Waugh, the producer and driving force behind the Bluefin Blowout, said Wednesday in a statement. “Presently, we understand that NOAA regulations are very restrictive for a weekend tournament and there are changes proposed that would make the tournament very difficult to pull off.”