Fish-chucking competition goes fishless – Fishupdate.com

Fish-chucking competition goes fishless Published:  14 December, 2007

AN Australian competition to see how far someone can throw a tuna will be missing something next year: the fish.

Organisers of the Tunarama Festival, held each January in Port Lincoln on the remote Eyre Peninsula, are altering the highlight event – the frozen tuna toss – by replacing the actual tuna with polyurethane replicas, says the Metro.

Each year, contestants in four categories hurl fish weighing up to 10 kilograms as far as they can, usually using a technique akin to that of an Olympic hammer thrower. The winner in each category gets £429 (1,000 Australian dollars).

The new fake fish have been sculpted by a locally born artist to look just like the real thing.

“The dimensions are perfect,” said the superbly-named Merriwyne Hore, the acting manager of the 2008 festival.

“We road tested it with one of our champions. He had a few throws, and he was really impressed. It felt good, very balanced.”

Hore said the switch was being made for several reasons, including to avoid wasting perfectly good fish.

“What happens when the tuna is tossed, even though it’s frozen solid, it does start to break down,” Hore told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“The tail comes off, the fins come off, the eyes fall out and then the underbelly breaks, and, you know, it really gets to be extremely messy.”

Hore said some people had objected to the change, but it was judged necessary on ecological and monetary grounds.

“Some people don’t like it, because it’s not original, but it’s time we got green, got realistic about this,” she said.

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