Page 47 - 52nd Annual White Marlin Open

Open, was also a winner of the 2022-23 IGMR. They deployed a satel-
lite tag on a blue marlin off the coast of Ocean City in August of 2022.
The satellite tag popped up 240 days later off the coast of Brazil. The
blue marlin had travelled an astonishing 4,761 miles!

In another WMO connection, long time tournament boat Hatterascal,
deployed a tag on a white marlin during the 2022 Open. While it did
not win the IGMR that year, its travel to the Dominican Republic con-
vinced the IGFA to promote tagging in that area.

Later that same year, three white marlin were tagged within days of
each other in the Dominican Republic. The results were astonishing.
Despite the same species being tagged in similar conditions at similar
times, the paths of these white marlin after they were tagged could
not have been more disparate. The three white marlin in this case
certainly lived up to their classification as a highly migratory fish!

These remarkable distances are not just numbers but represent the
critical data contributing to an understanding of billfish behavior, life
history, and migratory patterns which are integral to billfish conserva-
tion and the health of our oceans. It also shows how connected vari-
ous stocks of billfish are across oceans which is data that can be used
to inform stock assessment and management. In a tangible example,
the data gathered from the IGMR was used as evidence when the IGFA
provided testimony to Congress and was integral to the passing of the
Billfish Conservation Act of 2012 .

The World’s Largest and Richest Billfish Tournament | 47

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