Historic Black Marlin recapture!
by NSW DPIRD - Recreational Fisheries 12 Jul 16:57 NZST
Historic Black Marlin recapture! © NSW DPIRD - Recreational Fisheries
In late March 2025 Charles Purdie was fishing aboard the charter vessel Wingman, off the coast of Costa Rica and managed to land an impressive Black Marlin estimated at 130kg. While processing the fish, the crew managed to find part of a tag that was embedded in the flesh.
The report of this tag found its way to the NSW Game Fish Tagging Program via our partners at Hallprint and QLD Fisheries. After some collaboration and investigation, it was determined that this fish was indeed tagged with a NSW DPIRD billfish tag.
Our records revealed that this Black Marlin was originally tagged by Carlos Zambrana back in late January 2023 while fishing the Moreton Island Trench in South-East Queensland. Carlos estimated the fish to be only 15kg at the time of tagging.
Amazingly, in little over 2 years this fish swam over 7,360 nautical miles (~13,600km) across the Pacific Ocean and gained well over 100kg in weight.
While this is an impressive record of movement, it narrowly comes in second as the furthest distance travelled by any tagged fish within the Game Fish Tagging Program. The current record for the longest distance travelled by a tagged fish was also recaptured in Costa Rican waters. That Black Marlin was originally tagged off Yorkey's Knob back in 1996 and was recaptured offshore of Costa Rica in 2000. The fish was at liberty for 1,412 days (3 years and 10 months) and travelled over 7,780 nautical (~14,400km). That fish was also 15kg when tagged but unfortunately the recapture weight or length could not be attained.
This is one of the many exciting recaptures to be recently added to the Gamefish Tagging Program. If you're lucky enough to catch a tagged fish please ensure you report it using the online recapture form link here.
The Game Fish Tagging Program is another example of your recreational fishing fees at work.