GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Sept 3, 2012 — Linked to but overshadowed in the hoopla of the first Bluefin Blowout tuna tournament anchored last week at the Cape Ann Marina, the fifth annual “Tag a Tiny Tuna” effort raised an estimated $5,000 and $10,000 for the Large Pelagics Research Center.
The research center is enjoying its first season on the former pier of the former Cape Ann Granite Co. at Hodgins Cove of Ipswich Bay in Bay View.
While 30 boats competed for high stakes in the more traditional tournament which produced two trophies and more than $13,000 in prize money — the keepers and winners combined weighed nearly 1,000 pounds of the most valued sushi flesh — another 19 boats committed to catch, tag and release 19 more tuna that are still swimming, albeit now carrying a tag.
“The whole point was to raise money for Dr. Molly,” said Heidi Burgess, 25, who grew up in Manchester, the daughter of a fisherman, and now works in marketing and promotions in Boston.
“Dr. Molly” is Molly Lutcavage, the admired director of the research center and a world renowned research scientist” who with persistence and tenacity helped relocate the research center from University of New Hampshire to Bay View.
The facility is a part of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst academic system.
She and Mark Godfried, one of Gloucester’s most experienced and respected fishermen, organized the first Tag a Tiny Tuna tournament five years ago. Her father, Richard Burgess, is a tuna fisherman and owner of a small, multiple boat gillnet fishing business in Gloucester.
Heidi Burgess said they charge boats $200 to participate in the tagging program.
“We give out art related to tuna instead of cash prizes,” she said.
Since the program began, she said, “off the top of my head,” the program has generated about $30,000 for the research center. Cape Ann Seafood Exchange in Harbor Loop has also backed the project, with a $500 donation to the Zeus Packaging.
Read the full article at the Gloucester Times