FORT LAUDERDALE, FL - A leading fishing tournament director, touched by the tragic deaths of two NFL football players and their friend one year ago in the Gulf of Mexico, is requiring all anglers participating in the 3rd Annual Ft. Myers Beach Kingfish Shootout to carry satellite detectible emergency beacons aboard their boats.
Alberto Abad, president of Mambo Promotions and director of the Ft. Myers Beach Kingfish Shootout, said the impetus to require emergency beacons began after the highly publicized Gulf incident, which resulted in three lives lost and a three-day search covering over 16,000 square miles and costing an estimated $1.6 million. The football players did not have a distress beacon.
"Requiring a beacon has never been done before in a fishing tournament. There's nothing negative about it. It's a mindset we're trying to enforce," Abad said. "Most of the people who fish the event are experienced fishermen who understand safety. Those who fish off this coast always have to go out far, at least 50 miles, before it gets deep."
Typically, 50 to 70 boats of 23 to 38 feet in length compete in the Ft. Myers Beach Kingfish Shootout held on March 26 - 28. The tournament is sanctioned by the Southern Kingfish Association (SKA), which currently recommends its tournament participants carry a ditch bag containing EPIRBs and Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs). In 2011, SKA will require all participants in SKA tournaments carry ditch bags with EPIRBs and PLBs.
ACR Electronics, Inc., a leading manufacturer of EPIRBs and PLBs and safety and survival equipment, is a sponsor of the Southern Kingfish Association.
EPIRBs and PLBs are satellite-signaling devices of last resort, for use when all other means of self-rescue have been exhausted and where the situation is deemed to be grave and imminent, and the loss of life, limb, eyesight or valuable property will occur without assistance. All beacons must be registered online at www.beaconregistration.noaa.gov following purchase. There are no monthly service fees required for 406 MHz beacons.
