MATHER, JONES and BEARDSLEY: MARLINS IN ATLANTIC 



Table 2. — Returns from tagged white marlin, by fishery 

 and nationality of recapturing vessel. 



Type of fishery 



Country 



Number of 

 returns 



^ Some of the fish recaptured near Havana were caught by drift fishing 

 from small boats with "criollo" lines. These usually consist of three 

 interconnected lines with floats, each fishing at a different depth. 



fishery. The Cuban and Venezuelan longline 

 fisheries, though small compared to the Japanese 

 fishery, accounted for 21 returns (14 and 7, re- 

 spectively) . 



Tag recoveries from white marlin have been 

 confined to the western North Atlantic. Of the 

 65 recoveries, 58 were from fish tagged oflp the 

 middle Atlantic coast of the United States; we 

 divided these into three groups on the basis of 

 the area of recovery (Figure 2, Appendix): 



Area A — North of lat 32 °N 



Area B — lat 15°N to lat 32° N 



Area C — South of lat 15° N 



In area A, 23 tagged marlin were recaptured 

 in July through September and 1 in October; 

 in area B, 22 were taken in April through July; 

 and in area C, 12 were caught in October through 

 February. The recaptures in the three areas 

 are discussed below. 



Area A 



Of the 24 fish recaptured in area A, 14 were 

 recaptured in coastal waters between Maryland 

 and New Jersey. Twelve of these fish had been 

 tagged locally (within 120 nautical miles of the 

 point of recovery) and two had been tagged off 

 Cape Hatteras. Of the fish tagged locally in July 

 or August, three were recaptured in July or 

 August of the same year ; nine were recaptured 

 in July or August of subsequent years. Time 



Figure 2. — Location of recaptures of white marlin tagged 

 in the western North Atlantic Ocean north of lat 32°N 

 between Cape Hatteras, N.C., and Cape Cod, Mass., in 

 summer. The month of recapture is shown adjacent to 

 each recapture site. The number of recaptures at each 

 site is indicated by the number in parentheses (if more 

 than 1) and by the size of the dot. 



between tagging and recapture ranged from 9 

 days to 48 months. The 10 remaining fish tagged 

 and recaptured in area A were recaptured in 

 August, September, and October and at distances 

 greater than 120 miles from the point of tagging. 

 Some returns disclosed that in summer white 

 marlin migrate along the east coast of the United 

 States (Figure 3). Two fish tagged off Mary- 

 land and New Jersey were recaptured off North 

 Carolina (150 and 200 miles distant) in 17 and 

 21 days, respectively. One white marlin traveled 

 500 miles, from off North Carolina to Georges 

 Bank (off Cape Cod), in 12 days. 



Two returns from considerable distances off- 

 shore showed that white marlin which range 

 along the middle Atlantic coast in summer move 

 offshore in the fall. One fish released off Mary- 

 land moved 580 miles eastward in 60 days, and 

 the other, tagged in September 1966, was re- 

 captured 25.3 months later at lat 33°15'N, long 

 39°21'W, about 1,800 miles east of Cape Hat- 

 teras. 



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