'White Lives Matter' T-shirts Sold For Marlin Conservation
OCEAN CITY, Md. (WJZ/AP) — An Ocean City marina is selling T-shirts featuring the phrases "White Lives Matter" and "Blue Lives Matter" to spread awareness about the conservation of marlins.
The White Marlin Marina is selling two types of the shirts — one in honor of white marlins and another in honor of blue marlins.
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Worcester County NAACP president Ivory Smith tells The Daily Times of Salisbury that the shirts could be interpreted as a mockery of the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements. Those two phrases have been rallying cries following police shootings of African-Americans and shootings of police officers, respectively.
The designer of the shirts, employee George Lamplugh, says his shirts promote billfish conservation by featuring images of marlins on safe-release circle hooks, unlike Swagger Fishing, which sells "Kill Whitey" shirts and stickers promoting non-release white marlin fishing.
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He says he has no intention of spurring controversy with the shirts, and that a portion of the sales are going toward billfish conservation efforts.
This comes ahead of the 43rd annual White Marlin Open tournament, which starts on August 8.
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