By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE Marianas Apnea Spear-fishing Club is holding CNMI’s first spear-fishing competition next month, according to MASC president, Morito Asai.
Registration for the inaugural tournament, Asai said, started on Friday last week, and today, May , is the last day for interested individuals to sign up for the competition that will be held on May 12.
The free dive area will be several miles from the lighthouse off Garapan and will go all the way to Agingan Point on the southern part of the island.
“It’s going to be a shore-dive, two-man team competition. No solo divers will be accepted for safety reasons. Participants must also provide a buoy or a fish box with a dive flag,” he said, adding that participants can use any type of speargun, three-prong slings, local, Palauan, or European guns.
MASC vice president Felix Sasamoto who won two gold medals in the spear-fishing event during last year’s 6th Micronesian Games said that spear-using fishermen from Tinian, Rota, and Guam are welcome to take part in the competition.
Sasamoto, who has over 30 years of experience in spear-fishing hopes to see more than 20 teams show up for the tournament.
He said he and Asai have thought a lot about organizing the CNMI’s first-ever spear-fishing tournament but it was only last year when he and fellow gold medalists Frank Pangelinan and Mark Hapdei “brought home the bacon,” in the quadrennial event that they finally went ahead with the plan.
Aside from winning the gold medal in the spearfishing team competition, Sasamoto, who works for the Division of Fish and Wildlife, also bagged the individual gold in the 2006 Micro Games.
The entry fee for the tournament is $25 and entry forms can be picked up at Aqua Smith Dive Shop in Garapan or at the MVA office in San Jose.
Cash and in-kind prizes will be up for grabs for participants who top each of the tournament’s following categories: Biggest Fish, Total Weight, Total Quantity, Biggest Parrot Fish, Biggest Rudder Fish, Biggest Emperor, and Biggest Goat Fish.
For more information, call Asai at 483-7625 or Felix Sasamoto at 256-3033/898-8155.