Shark fishing celebrities The Shark Brothers from Tampa will tag the five sharks for the tournament.

Controversy about the tournament began when protestors began flooding media blog sites and editorial mailboxes to convince Donlon to go to a 100% catch and release format. A group of Japanese athletes spoke out against theformat and they were joined by noted marine artist, Wyland who wrote a sharply worded letter condemning the event.

When the Lee County Visitors and Convention Bureau started receiving letters from tourists who planned to change their vacation plans to another destination if the tournament went forward with plans to kill several sharks, three members of the Lee County Board of Commissioners spoke up against the tournament. The Chamber of Commerce also issued a resolution urging the promoter to change to catch and release

Now that the issue has been resolved to everyone's satisfaction, protests that were planned for Memorial Day weekend are now not likely to go forward.

Mayor Larry Kiker said, "We're a family beach," he replied. "As I understand, there's two days of events with 35 booths and 80 vendors. They have activities for kids and the Ostego Bay Foundation will put on a presentation and talk about the conservation of sharks."

Shark Fest is being held during the weekend of June 6-7. The shark challenge starts at 8 p.m. Saturday. This is the third year the Shark Challenge has been held on Ft. Myers Beach but the first where it is tied to a two-day tournament. The past two years it was held at Channel Mark Restaurant on San Carlos Island.