The 74-year-old Suncoast Tarpon Roundup, the final "kill" tournament in the country, has decided to move to an all-release format when fishing begins in May.

"It is day to look to the future," said Jason Gell, the St. Petersburg-based tournament’s newly elected president. "We have been losing membership. The only way to guarantee a future is to change the way we run the tournament."

In recent years, the tournament, which runs from May through July, has endured harsh criticism from conservation and environmental groups considering it still allowed a

non-food fish — tarpon — to be caught and killed for sport.

The 29-year-old Gell, who competed in his first Roundup when he was 5, said tournament anglers will participate in a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission study to to assess tarpon migration patterns.

"that is a big step for us," he said. "We hope we can convince new citizens, particularly junior anglers, to come out and help us fish for science."

– Terry Tomalin, Times outdoors editor

Original post by Times Editor