A little more than 20 miles north of St. Thomas lies a place that is a mecca for big game fishermen - part hunting ground and part playground.
The famed North Drop is a precipitous plummet where the floor of the Atlantic Ocean suddenly plunges into a jet-black abyss. But there is no emptiness in that fathomless darkness. It is not a cavernous void, but rather a deep womb teeming with marine life - including the mammoth blue marlin.
Anglers will be vying for some serious money themselves, with cash prizes for the top finishers in individual, boat and crew categories. The individual angler who catches the most marlin also will reel in a $10,000 first-place prize.
"It's like dropping off a table," Jimmy Loveland said of the Drop. "In fact, it goes to 30,000 feet deep out there. The blue marlin is the king of the beasts, and this is where the blue marlin congregate. And because the boats can reach down this far, we stage what we call the Super Bowl."
The U.S. Virgin Islands Open Atlantic Blue Marlin Tournament, dubbed the Super Bowl of sportfishing tournaments, begins its 32nd edition on Thursday with anglers from ports across the Caribbean and the mainland competing to reel in the most marlin during four days of angling along the North Drop. Often referred to locally as the Boy Scout Tournament because of its role as the single largest fund-raiser for the Virgin Islands Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the annual tourney is primed for its most successful year to date, thanks to a record number of entries.
According to Loveland, the tournament director, 46 boats carrying some 140 anglers will assemble at American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook to take part this year - up from 30 boats in 2003. Loveland, who equates the USVI Open Atlantic Blue Marlin Tournament's significance in big game fishing to such defining sporting events as the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, said he is confident that this year's turnout will raise more than the $80,000 that the tournament has averaged in recent years.
"We have a lot of regulars that come here year after year," Loveland said. "The majority are from Florida - what we call stateside boats - and they join with our local fleet. It's a real good field, and there's a possibility that we will net closer to $100,000."
Anglers will be vying for some serious money themselves, with cash prizes for the top finishers in individual, boat and crew categories. The individual angler who catches the most marlin also will reel in a $10,000 first-place prize.
The tournament is run in a modified-release format, meaning that no marlin may be boated with the exception of a possible world-record catch. In the event that an angler brings in a marlin thought to be a world-record contender, the boat must go to the country where it was caught for a weigh-in. With both USVI and British Virgin Islands waters straddling the North Drop, any world record catches made in BVI waters will be taken to Tortola rather than returning to St. Thomas.
This year, for the very first time, the USVI Open Atlantic Blue Marlin Tournament is being held as part of a triple crown of fishing called the Bermuda Triangle Series. Earlier tourneys were held in Harbour Island, Bahamas, from June 14 to 16 and in Bermuda from July 16 to 18. The expansion brings a new angle to the St. Thomas leg of the Triangle, with three teams of anglers - Team Somoya, Team Rum Bum and Team Lady Lou - competing for the overall series crown.
Loveland said that the creation of the two new tournaments, and ultimately the Bermuda Triangle Series itself, is just the beginning of a growth process he hopes will end with the first two legs drawing the large number of boats that the USVI Open now attracts, along with the possibility of national television coverage.
