FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 2 



,-»CAPf HAnE«AS 



76° 75° 74° 73° 72° 71° 7Cf 69° 68° 67° 



Figure 3. — Movements of tagged white marlin along the 

 middle Atlantic coast of the United States, July-October. 

 Recaptures were in the same year as releases. 



Area B 



Of the 22 white marlin recaptured in area B 

 in April through July, 14 were taken in the 

 Straits of Florida, 4 off the eastern Bahamas 

 and eastern Greater Antilles, 3 were well off 

 the southeast coast of the United States (be- 

 tween lat 28°N and lat 31°N), and 1 north of 

 Jamaica. 



Area C 



Of the 12 tagged white marlin recaptured in 

 area C, 1 was recovered in late October off Co- 

 lombia, 9 were recovered in November, Decem- 

 ber, and January off Venezuela and the Lesser 

 Antilles, and 2 in February off the Guianas. 



The tagging results show clearly that white 

 marlin in the western North Atlantic Ocean mi- 

 grate seasonally. Fish tagged off the U.S. mid- 

 dle Atlantic coast apparently move offshore in 

 late summer and fall from their summer grounds 

 in coastal waters. They probably winter off the 

 north coast of South America and move north- 



ward in spring back to the summer grounds. 

 The large number of returns off Havana, Cuba, 

 and the single return from north of Jamaica sug- 

 gest that many move north through the Carib- 

 bean Sea and the Yucatan Channel. Four re- 

 coveries north of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola 

 and east of the Bahamas indicate that white 

 marlin also follow the Antilles Current* north- 

 ward. 



The nonrandom distribution of recoveries in 

 areas A, B, and C reflects to some degree the 

 seasonal nature of both the sport and commer- 

 cial catches in those areas. In the Straits of 

 Florida, however, tagged white marlin have been 

 recaptured only in April through July even 

 though the species is caught there throughout 

 the year. Off the north coast of South America, 

 white marlin are caught throughout the year by 

 commercial and sport fishermen; yet tagged fish 

 have been recaptured only in October through 

 February, 



The remaining 7 of the total of 65 returns 

 were from 1,235 white marlin released from 

 sport fishing centers in southeast Florida and the 

 Bahamas (551 releases), the Gulf of Mexico 

 (239), Venezuela (374), and the West Indies 

 (71) (Table 1, Figure 4). Two white marlin 

 tagged off Venezuela in August and September 

 were recaptured after 3 to 4 months at large — 

 one in November in the release area and the 

 other in December off the coast of the Guianas. 

 A third fish, tagged off Venezuela in October, 

 was recaptured 20 months later (June) off South 

 Carolina, probably en route to the U.S. middle 

 Atlantic coastal region. Two white marlin 

 tagged in the Bahamas were recaptured: one 

 tagged in March was recaptured in June of the 

 same year off St. Augustine, Fla., and the other, 

 tagged in January, was recaptured in July in the 

 Gulf of Mexico. Two white marlin tagged in 

 July in the northern Gulf of Mexico were re- 

 captured in the same area — one within a month 

 and the other a year after tagging. 



The two returns from off the eastern United 

 States in June (from fish tagged in the Bahamas 

 and off Venezuela) fit well with the indicated 



* Names of currents are from Neumann and Pierson 

 (1966). 



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