Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Eel Tossing Update

After posting yesterday about the unfortunate cancelation of the Conger Eel Cuddling event in Lyme Regis, England, I was informed in the comments by FKAB, who lives in Australia, that there are other fish-flinging events in the world.

Port Lincoln, South Australia, is host to the annual Tunarama. If you're in the neighborhood, the next one will be held January 26 - 28, 2007. It's a distance contest for flinging dead tuna down the beach.

As I was driving to work, with tunas and eels on my mind, I came up with a (I believe, anyway) brilliant idea for the folks in Lyme Regis who had to substitute a boat dock fender for the dead conger eel. The event is designed as a fund-raiser for the lifeboat crews of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Eels are better fund-raisers than boat dock fenders. So I sent them a message with my idea. Here is the body of my message:

Yesterday, I read an article by the AP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060730/ap_on_fe_st/britain_eel_game) about the way an animal rights activist threatened to spoil the fun at the annual conger eel cuddling event. Since this event is held as part of a festival to raise funds for RNLI lifeboat crews, I'd like to suggest a way to return to the use of eels next year and raise more money in the process.

Go a step further than the activist threatened: Film the festivities yourselves, make a DVD, and offer the DVDs for sale on the internet. I'm sure there are many who would enjoy watching a contest as offbeat as this one.

It's sad to realize there are grumpy people in the world who are more concerned about dead eels than they are about raising money to help save human lives. I hate to see them win.

God bless you all for what you do.

I think it could work.

2 comments:

Jacob said...

Let us know when you get a response.

LOL... Who knew flinging dead fish could be so fun?

SkyePuppy said...

FKAB,

You bet I'll let you know.

I already got the auto-reply thanking me for my enquiry and promising me that someone from RNLI would get back to me.