KEY POINTS:
MONTAUK - In this Long Island fishing hamlet, hundreds of adults drank beer and children marvelled at the bloodied sharks caught in a fishing contest, including a heart from a gutted 82kg thresher shark that several children poked with awe.
A banner flying overhead read "Enter the Cruel Shark Tournament Now". It belonged to a smaller group protesting at what they said was the killing on Friday and Saturday of a species already declining in number.
The small group of protesters, backed for the first time by a large US animal protection group, want to stop the shark-hunting tournament, one of the largest in the United States where the winner can take home more than US$400,000 ($539,884) in prizemoney and from bets among fishermen.
"This isn't about sport, it's about big money and big suffering of endangered animals," said John Grandy of the Humane Society. "This is recreational slaughter done for cash prizes."
After a Humane Society campaign, a similar tournament in Florida was shut down this year.
Organisers refused to shut down the Montauk tournament.
- REUTERS
