IGFA Take Marlin Off The Menu

Deckie Masau releases a nice blue marlin around 300lbs
this week aboard Bite Me

Now is the time to Take Marlin Off the Menu

Concerned about the health of billfish fisheries, the IGFA and the National Coalition for Marine Conservation joined forces in 2008 to create the Take Marlin off the Menu campaign. In just two short years, the campaign gained the support of such luminaries as Wolfgang Puck and the Wegmans Supermarket chain – as well as the attention of U.S. policymakers. Their support hinged largely on an Economic Analysis of International Billfish Markets which shows that the economic value of the U.S. billfish trade is almost nil in relation to the rest of the U.S. commercial fishing industry.
Support of the Billfish Conservation Act would close the U.S. to commercial billfish harvest, importation and sale. It would have a negligible impact on the commercial industry in the U.S. while helping increase the abundance of these important apex predators and also the value of the recreational fishery, which brings in billions of dollars annually but has a minimal impact on billfish populations.
Take action today to make sure that no billfish will end up in grocery store shelves or on restaurant menus again. Visit http://takemarlinoffthemenu.org/Billfish_Conservation_Act to do your part to take marlin off the menu!

Support the IGFA

Rare Baby Marlin tagged & Released

Last weekend's inaugural Mai TV Tuna Classic Tournament out of the Royal Suva Yacht Club produced an extraordinary catch for anglers Geoff Eden and Matt Davey fishing aboard Kania.
In some rather ropey weather, the anglers boated, tagged and released two juvenile marlin and lost a third fish of similar size.



Marlin this size are rarely caught and two tagged fish an extreme rarity. Lets hope they are one day recaptured and the tags returned for some valuable data.


The two day Tournament saw 15 competing boats raise 9 marlin, one sailfish and several mahi mahi and yellowfin tuna. Kania won the tropy with her two baby marlin and a tagged sail whilst Blo won the 'Hard Luck' wooden spoon after fighting an estimated 300kg black marlin for 5 hours before the line parted.

Next week is the Denarau Tuna Classic and hopes are high for some more big yellowfin Tuna.

Dogtooth Tuna and GT Tagging Programme

With the kind assistance of the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) we have started a programme here around Kadavu Island to Tag and Release primarily Dogtooth Tuna but also some Giant Trevally caught and released aboard our gamefishing boats Bite Me and Tease Me.

Our first Tagged GT measured 37" Short Length and weighed 16kg

Our second GT Tagged measured 46" Short Length and was estimated to weigh 35kg

Tag placement

We also tagged our first Dogtooth Tuna of 15kg but no photos - a quick release...

Although it is believed that GTs and to a certain extent Dogtooth Tuna are terratorial and spend much of their adult lives staking out their particular patch of reef, relatively little is known about them. We hope to shed light on the following grey areas :
1. Release mortality rates - GTs seem to be very hardy fish but how well do they really release ?
Dogtooth tuna are monsterous brutes but do they survive a fight ? Does invisible barotrauma affect release mortality rates ? Do release weights improve the chances of a healthy release ?
2. Movements - Do these species move significant distances ?
3. Growth rates.

It will take a while to get recapture information but we are optimistic...
Last month we caught the same GT two days running, in the same place, on the same lure....
Obviously its first days encounter with anglers didn't seem to cause the fish any great disruption.