OC fisherman aims to spread awareness for marlin conservation

 An Ocean City fisherman is making shirts that some say are creating controversy.

George Lamplugh, a marlin fisherman, is creating shirts with ‘white lives matter’ and ‘blue lives matter’ printed on the back of them to promote awareness of marlin conservation and meant no controversy by it.

Lamplugh designed the t-shirts with the saying ‘white lives matter’ and ‘blue lives matter’ with a picture of a upside down marlin on it to reveal the importance of safely catching and releasing white and blue marlin.

47 ABC went down to the marina to see these shirts and meet with Lamplugh, who declined to be on camera, but did tell us he meant no controversy by the shirt.

Captain Ted Deppe, a friend of Lamplugh, told us the reasoning behind the shirts.

 “Here’s a perfect opportunity to draw some attention to conserving white marlins and have some fun at the same time you know like hey, this is perfect,” Deppe said.

 47 ABC saw first-hand how popular these shirts are. They were flying off the shelves and Lamplugh even had to turn someone down because he was out of their size.

Those we talked to in the fishing community say they’re all about the shirts and don’t believe they are offensive, but outside the marina, it was a different story.

Nicole Glover, a resident of Salisbury, Md. shared her thoughts what Lamplugh should have changed.

“You should have made the gesture about the fish saying ‘white lives matter’ because right now you’re shirt is basically stepping on the shirt of ‘black lives matter’. You should have chosen another statement for that,” said Nicole Glover.

Lamplugh tells us there’s no plans to stop selling the shirts.