Another Black Marlin distance record for the Game Fish Tagging Program
by NSW DPI - Recreational Fisheries 5 Mar 2024 16:12 PST
Game Fish Tagging Program © NSW DPI - Recreational Fisheries
On the 28th of January 2023, Peter MacDougal was celebrating his 50th birthday with his family off Broken Bay aboard Scott Thorrington's vessel Freedom (Haven Sport Fishing Charters). Peter recalls leaving at daybreak, fishing for live bait off the local headland and then venturing out to set lines, and it didn't take long before reels were screaming! One of three marlin tagged and released that day was a nice 80kg Black Marlin.
In late December 2023, nearly 11 months later, the Black Marlin was reported as recaptured by a Japanese longline vessel on the high seas of the Central South Pacific Ocean. Upon looking at the co-ordinates, it seemed the only feature close to the recapture location was a seamount, known as Anapa Hill Seamount, which was only discovered recently in 2019. The closest land territory to the recapture location was Fatu-Hiva (Marquesas Islands) in French Polynesia, 970 nautical miles to the West.
Amazingly, this female Black Marlin measuring in at 190cm had travelled 4,800 nautical miles in 329 days, making this the third longest distance travelled by a Black Marlin within the program since 1973. The average speed of the marlin was just over 14 nautical miles per day (~27km per day) which is certainly not the quickest recorded but impressive nonetheless. The last Black Marlin recorded travelling further than this was back in 1998. This 174cm Black Marlin was tagged off the Bribie Island Trench (QLD) and was also recaptured by Japanese longliner 546 days later in Hawaiian waters, travelling a staggering distance of 6,060 nautical miles with a slightly lower average speed of 11 nautical miles per day (~20km per day).
Peter commented that he is proud to be apart of the program given that in his 50th year (also as long as the Game Fish Tagging Program has been running), he happened to catch a record for the program.
The Game Fish Tagging Program is another example of your recreational fishing fees at work.