MIGRATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WHITE MARLIN AND 

 BLUE MARLIN IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN' 



Frank J. Mather, III/ Albert C. Jones/ and Grant L. Beardsley, Jr.^ 



ABSTRACT 



Migration and distribution of white marlin, Tetrapturus albidus Poey, and blue marlin, 

 Makaira nigricans Lacepede, in the Atlantic Ocean are discussed on the basis of tagging 

 data (western North Atlantic, 1954-May 1970) and statistics of the Japanese Atlantic 

 longline fishery (1956-67). White and blue marlins are widely distributed over the 

 warmer waters of the Atlantic. Seasonal concentrations occur in certain areas, especially 

 in the western Atlantic. 



In the North Atlantic one group of white marlin summers off the U.S. middle Atlantic 

 coast. In the fall fish of this group migrate offshore, then south to winter off the north 

 coast of South America. In the spring these fish return north along or through the An- 

 tilles and the Bahamas. Tagged fish from this group were recaptured after up to 4 years 

 at liberty; the returns suggest that the annual mortality is between 14% and 39%. There 

 are apparently other groups of white marlin in the North Atlantic that move seasonally 

 between various localities, but these movements have not been fully defined. An appar- 

 ently separate population of white marlin concentrates in the eastern South Atlantic 

 Ocean in winter and in the western part in summer. 



Blue marlin concentrate in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the North At- 

 lantic south of lat 30 °N, from June through October, and in the western and central South 

 Atlantic between lat 10° and lat 20°S from February through April. These concen- 

 trations probably represent distinct spawning populations. 



The white marlin, Tetrapturus albidus Poey, 

 and the blue marlin, Makaira nigricans Lacepede 

 (family Istiophoridae) , are distributed widely 

 in the Atlantic Ocean. Their distribution and 

 habits are of interest because they are impor- 

 tant game fishes and because they are taken by 

 commercial longline fisheries. 



Few studies have been made of the migration 

 and distribution of either species in the Atlantic 

 Ocean. Gibbs (1957) described in detail the dis- 

 tribution of white marlin in the Gulf of Mexico 

 from catch records of the U.S. exploratory fish- 

 ing vessel Oregon. Squire (1962) described the 

 distribution of white and blue marlins in the 



^ Contribution No. 169, National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, Southeast Fisheries Center, Miami, Fla., and 

 Contribution No. 2512, Woods Hole Oceanographic In- 

 stitution, Woods Hole, Mass. 



° Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, 

 MA 02543. 



^ National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fish- 

 eries Center, 75 Virginia Beach Drive, Miami, FL 33149. 



Manuscript accepted January 1972. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 2, 1972. 



western North Atlantic, based on longline 

 catches of exploratory fishing vessels. De Sylva 

 and Davis (1963) reported on their studies of 

 the white marlin sport fishery off the middle At- 

 lantic coast of the United States. Nakamura, 

 Iwai, and Matsubara (1968) gave a general re- 

 view of the billfishes of the world. 



Ueyanagi et al. (1970) described the distribu- 

 tion, spawning, and relative abundance of bill- 

 fishes in the Atlantic Ocean; this comprehensive 

 work is based mainly on the results of the Jap- 

 anese longline fishery and of cruises by Jap- 

 anese research vessels. 



Other reports are based mainly on incidental 

 collections or the results of scattered fishing ac- 

 tivity (LaMonte, 1955, 1958a, b; Erdman, 1956, 

 1962; Krumholz, 1958; Krumholz and de Sylva, 

 1958; de Sylva, 1958, 1963; Rodriguez-Roda 

 and Howard, 1962; and Talbot and Penrith, 

 1962). 



Sportsmen participating in the Cooperative 

 Game Fish Tagging Program of the Woods Hole 



283 



