MATHER, JONES and BEARDSLEY: MARLINS IN ATLANTIC 



white marlin moves from the wintering area off 

 the coast of South America to summer grounds 

 in the Gulf of Mexico. The relation between 

 these two groups, which have different summer- 

 ing areas but similar wintering areas, is not 

 clear, nor is their relation to a third group of 

 white marlin which summers off Venezuela. 



3. White marlin in the South Atlantic are sep- 

 arate from those in the North Atlantic and mi- 

 grate from the eastern South Atlantic in winter 

 to the western South Atlantic in summer. 



4. White marlin appear to be relatively long- 

 lived. An annual mortality of 27% was esti- 

 mated from tag return data. 



BLUE MARLIN 



1. Only three tag returns have been recorded 

 for blue marlin; all were relatively near the 

 points of release. 



2. Analysis of Japanese longline catch records 

 for blue marlin reveals concentrations during 

 summer and early autumn on the western side 

 of the North and South Atlantic Oceans. In 

 winter these concentrations disperse, and no 

 pattern of distribution is apparent. 



3. The two populations appear to be separate. 

 We believe that spawning takes place in spring 

 and summer for each group. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The authors are most grateful to all the or- 

 ganizations and individuals who have assisted 

 this research. The Woods Hole Oceanographic 

 Institution (WHOI) and its Associates financed 

 the first 2 years of the Cooperative Game Fish 

 Tagging Program. The National Science Foun- 

 dation (Grants G-861, G-2102, G-8339, G-19601, 

 GB-3464, and GH-82) and the Bureau of Com- 

 mercial Fisheries (Contracts 14-17-007-272, 

 -547, -975, and -1110) (now National Marine 

 Fisheries Service) have provided its principal 

 funding since 1965, and the work was concluded 

 under Sea Grant' #GH-82 to WHOI. Important 

 additional support has been received from the 



' National Sea Grant Program, National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce. 



Sport Fishing Institute ; the Charles W. Brown, 

 Jr., Memorial Foundation; the Lou Marron Sci- 

 ence Fund; the National Geographic Society; 

 the Tournament of Champions (through its 1967 

 and 1968 winners, Mrs. Ann Kunkel and E. D. 

 Martin) ; and many additional sport fishing or- 

 ganizations and individual sportsmen. 



The tagging results were made possible by 

 the thousands of anglers, captains, and mates 

 who have tagged and released many of their 

 catches, and the clubs and tournament commit- 

 tees which have encouraged tagging. We regret 

 that space does not permit individual acknowl- 

 edgments here; the major participants are listed 

 in the informal progress reports on the Coop- 

 erative Game Fish Tagging Program which are 

 issued periodically by the WHOI. The press and 

 the broadcasting media have also done much to 

 encourage tagging and the return of tags. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Bartlett, M. R., AND R. L. Haedrich. 



1968. Neuston nets and South Atlantic larval blue 



marlin (Makaira nigricans). Copeia 1968:469- 



474. 

 Caldwell, D. K. 



1962. Postlarvae of the blue marlin, Makaira ni- 

 gricans, from off Jamaica. Los Angeles Cty. Mus., 

 Contr. Sci. 53, 11 p. 



DE Sylva, D. p. 



1957. Studies on the age and growth of the At- 

 lantic sailfish, Istiophorus americanus (Cuvier), 

 using length-frequency curves. Bull. Mar. Sci. 

 Gulf Caribb. 7:1-20. 



1958. Juvenile blue marlin, Ma/catVa awpZa (Poey), 

 from Miami, Florida, and West End, Bahamas. 

 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 114:412-415. 



1963. Postlarva of the white marlin, Tetrapturus 

 albidus, from the Florida Current off the Car- 

 olinas. Bull. Mar. Sci. Gulf Caribb. 13:123-132. 



DE Sylva, D. P., and W. P. Davis. 



1963. White marlin, Tetrapturus albidus, in the 



middle Atlantic bight, with observations on the 



hydrography of the fishing grounds. Copeia 



1963:81-99. 

 Erdman, D. S. 



1956. Recent fish records from Puerto Rico. Bull. 



Mar. Sci. Gulf Caribb. 6:315-340. 

 1962. The sport fishery for blue marlin off Puerto 



Rico. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 91:225-227. 

 1968. Spawning cycle, sex ratio, and weights of 



blue marlin off Puerto Rico and the Virgin 



Islands. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 97:131-137. 



295 



