Riviera ART Marine Sinbad Classic 2008 - "Sustainability through Sport"

The Sinbad Classic holds the prestige of being Arabia's premier Sport fishing event. For three years competitors have been treated to wonderful fishing and a warm welcome by Omani's. "We take great pleasure to once again host the Sinbad Classic Tournament in Oman," said Event director Bruce Fennessy of Intevents LLC.

This year's tournament will see a host of changes to the rulings to ensure that the country and the environment are considered. Intevents, after consulting with local fisherman and many other professionals, have decided to utilise the event to showcase the major theme for the event, "Sustainability through Sport".

"Our underlying theme for the event, is one that we hope will create an awareness among everyone that we all need to work together to ensure that our natural resources are maintained and that local business can continue to grow as it has done so successfully under His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. By creating awareness among a new travel market, we hope to help grow the tourism, sports and the environmental industries even more," said Mr. Fennessy.

For the first time in the events history the focus on preserving fish stocks will be prominent with the introduction of catch limits per species as well as increased minimum weights. Teams will also receive bonus points for targeting more species.

"We have implemented these rule changes to ensure that even with Oman's current abundant oceans that the focus remains on preserving and potentially growing our existing fish stocks, which will allow future generations to enjoy what we have today."

The event runs from the 27-29 March this year. Boats will fish from 7am until 4pm each day and should return to the Marina by 5pm where after the all important weigh-in takes place. "The weigh-in's this year should be very interesting. With the various quota limits being enforced teams will only be allowed to bring in certain amount of fish to the scales which should ensure that they tend to focus on the older and larger species."

The winning team is determined through the amount of points scored during the course of the three days fishing. Teams score points based on the weight of the fish that they bring to the scales. The winning team is the one with the most points. Registration for the event closes on the 16 March 2008.