OCEAN CITY — With the town’s prize money restored and even doubled by a coalition of local businesses for the first white marlin of the season caught off the coast of Ocean City, plans for marketing and promoting the annual milestone were revealed this week.
During a budget work session last month, the Mayor and Council voted to eliminate the town’s annual $5,000 prize for the first white marlin of the season caught in off the coast of Ocean City, citing a perceived lack of interest in the annual milestone. For decades, the Town of Ocean City has awarded a $5,000 check to the angler who catches the first recorded white marlin of the season off the coast of the resort to honor the kick-off of another summer offshore season and as a nod to the town’s reputation as the White Marlin Capital of the World. The Ocean City Marlin Club also adds a $5,000 contribution of its own if the angler is also a club member.
When the word got out that the town had decided to eliminate the annual $5,000 prize, the backlash from the resort’s fishing community was immediate. A coalition of various businesses called Fishermen United of Ocean City rallied to put together its own prize package for the first white marlin of the season to fill the void totaling $5,000 to go along with Marlin Club’s annual $5,000 contribution if the angler is a club member.
A week later, after receiving a blitz of phone calls and emails from the resort’s fishing community, the Mayor and Council voted to restore the town’s annual $5,000 prize for the first white marlin of the season and moved the contribution to the tourism department’s budget. With the town’s $5,000 prize restored and the business community’s $5,000 contribution left intact, the angler who catches the first white marlin of the season now stands to win at least $10,000 and the total could swell to $15,000 if the angler is a Marlin Club member.
The Mayor and Council also directed Tourism Director Donna Abbott to work with the fishing community, including Scott Lennox of Fish In OC, Dave Messick of Hooked on OC and Marlin Club President Franky Pettolina, to promote and market the annual milestone and make it an even bigger and better event. During Monday’s Tourism Committee meeting, Abbott explained the brainstorming had resulted in comprehensive marketing and promotion plan.
The plan includes banners on the resort’s various websites along with an extensive social media blitz. A Twitter handle has been created called #firstwhitemarlinoc and Lennox, Messick and Pettolina have already collaborated on a short video promoting the annual milestone that is already gaining exposure.
“We’re trying to get the biggest bang for our buck,” said Abbott on Monday. “We want to really promote this and get the word out and create some energy for the first white marlin.”
For years, the town presented the $5,000 check to the angler who caught the first white marlin of the year at the Marlin Club’s annual awards ceremony in the fall, but Abbott said the plan was in place to really honor the winning angler and make a bigger deal of the check presentation.
“The town used to hand over the check sort of unceremoniously,” she said. “Now, we’re going to invite the winner to the council chambers for a big check presentation ceremony and really make a big to-do about it.”
While much of the focus will be on the angler who catches the first white marlin, the town hopes to engage the public and create a buzz in the weeks leading up to the annual milestone. Abbott said Messick and Lennox were helping to put together a contest to get the public involved.
“Fish In OC and Hooked on OC are putting together a contest for who can guess when the first white marlin will be caught,” she said. “We’re really trying to engage the public in this. We have a plan now and hopefully we can get all of this rolled out before that first white marlin is caught.”
Last year, the first white marlin catch and release of the season occurred on May 27, tying for the second earliest recorded first white marlin ever since records were first kept in the 1930s. Historically, the first white marlin catch and release of the season has occurred most often in a window of five to seven days in mid-June. The latest date ever for the first white marlin of the year off the coast of Ocean City occurred on July 20, 1940.
Last year, angler Andy Urban, fishing aboard the “In the Black” out of Sunset Marina, caught and released the first white marlin of the season on May 27, just days after the earliest ever recorded on May 25 in 2015. Subsequently, Urban and the “In the Black” crew was awarded the $5,000 check from the town and another $5,000 check from the Ocean City Marlin Club for also being club members.
The first recorded catch of a white marlin off the coast of Ocean City occurred in 1936, not long after an epic storm cut the now famous Inlet between Ocean City and Assateague and started to put the resort on the map as a world-class sportfishing destination.
