Bluewater, Safe Harbor and Gregory Poole Team Up to Offer Special Events At The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament

Participants and their families look forward to this casual barbecue, gathering on the eve of the tournament under the shadow of the official weigh station each team hopes to be visiting with their catches later in the week. It takes more than just a village to host an event of this size, and the collaboration between local and out-of-town businesses, event staff, volunteers, town officials and essential service providers is part of what makes the Big Rock such a success.

Something New

In 2024, organizers from Bluewater Yacht Sales, Safe Harbor Marinas, Gregory Poole Cat and the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament also collaborated to offer a series of special experiences above and beyond the regular schedule of events.

Extended to all regional Safe Harbor Members, plus Bluewater and Caterpillar customers, this opportunity included a cocktail party and dinner on Thursday night under the Big Rock tent in Morehead City. That evening, approximately three hundred members and friends gathered to enjoy great food, company, and dancing to live music from The Deloreans, just steps away from the Big Rock scales.

Something Blue

Earlier in the day, Bluewater and Safe Harbor offered a special excursion to 40 pre-registered Safe Harbor Members to visit CMAST, which is the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology at N.C. State University. This is a satellite campus situated on the captivating Bogue Sound, an important estuarine environment supporting spawning grounds and bait schools critical to our favorite inshore and offshore gamefish.

By many accounts this “field trip” was the highlight of the Safe Harbor Members Experience, and several attendees left enthralled about what they had learned that morning. “If you’re interested in fishing, and being the best at it, then science and biology can be pretty important and interesting,” explained Bluewater Yacht Sales General Manager Wyatt Lane.

The group of Safe Harbor Members took part in a presentation by CMAST Fisheries Ecologist, Jeffrey Buckel, Ph.D., and learned about how varying anatomy traits and the biology of different gamefish species provides clues to understanding their behavior. After this informative classroom presentation from Dr. Buckel, the group went downstairs to meet graduate students Bethany Wager and Ryan Tharp and get hands-on with the subject matter.

Petri dishes of ear drums, eyeballs, fin clips, livers, swim bladders and more were laid out for inspection by the group and prompted an interactive question-and-answer session. Understanding more about how these organs work can provide insights into how gamefish behave in the wild, and thus lead to better success rates for those concerned with catching, releasing and conserving the species.

In respect to marlin fishing, this scientific knowledge can lead to better understanding of how these fish move, both in the short term (acceleration, making turns, chasing prey) and long term (seasonal migration patterns). Lane explained that learning more about how much time billfish spend taking deep dives vs. hunting and catching prey at the top of the water column can be informative for anglers targeting them at the surface. In short, size, sex, diet and water conditions all contribute to how a marlin behaves in the wild—and thus how an angler might best target them.

Something Borrowed

All of the blue marlin and many of the gamefish that are brought to the scales during the Big Rock tournament are given to CMAST researchers to autopsy and learn about these fish, their growth and behaviors. Thus, the data and insights provided by the tournament itself, comes full circle to help conserve and sustain the species, food web and habitats that are critical to ensuring a bright future for the sport of big game fishing.

While playing with fish guts might not be everyone’s cup of tea, the consensus was that the visit to the CMAST facility was a great opportunity to learn more about our fisheries and the work being done locally to protect them. “It was impressive enough to compel this UNC-Chapel Hill graduate to send an online donation to N.C. State!” exclaimed Lane.

To cap off the Member Experience trip, the group enjoyed an exceptional lunch at Southern Salt Seafood in Morehead City.

Bluewater’s Event Manager Kristen Turk expressed sincere thanks to the many people that helped make these events successful, including Bluewater management team members, “Randy Ramsey and Wyatt Lane for connecting the team with Dr. Buckel at CMAST, as well as [Safe Harbor Regional Sales Director] Sam Branham for the vision and support in creating this new event.” Turk added that Gregory Poole’s sponsorship of the party provided important support along with Michelle Warren of the Big Rock Tournament for kindly providing her team’s assistance with the venue space, setup and break-down.

Collaborative partnerships like this are just one of the many ways our companies endeavor to offer new and exciting value-added experiences to Safe Harbor Members and Bluewater customers, and you can be assured will be back again with something new each year!