occasionally caught white marlin off that city. Talbot 

 and Penrith (1962, 1963) recorded single captures of 

 white marlin off Cape Town, South Africa, in March 

 1961 and February 1962; 110 miles north-northwest of 

 Walvis Bay, South West Africa in April 1961; and off 

 the island of St. Helena (no date reported). These 

 authors also noted that in the summer of 1961, three 

 striped marlin, T. audax, were caught in the same 

 area as the white marlin. Records of the Game Fish 

 Union of Africa (Anon., 1972b) show two additional 

 white marlin, 63 pounds (28.6 kg) and 111 pounds 

 (50.5 kg), caught off St. Helena on 17 February 1958 

 and 16 February 1961, respectively. 



The information on the distribution of white marlin 

 in the North Atlantic obtained from the oceanic 

 fisheries is supplemented by studies of important 

 seasonal coastal concentrations and records of oc- 

 casional occurrences in various localities. Peak in- 

 shore sport fishing and offshore longline fishing do not 

 necessarily coincide seasonally in each area, probably 

 because of differences in distribution relative to depth 

 of water, and changes in swimming depth and feeding 

 habits. 



In summer, the peak longline catches are in the 

 Gulf of Mexico and the northwestern Caribbean. Low 

 catch rates (Figs. 5, 7) over extensive areas indicate 

 that white marlin are widely but thinly distributed 

 over much of the deep waters of the open North Atlan- 

 tic during this season. 



The most important inshore concentrations in 

 summer and early fall are on and near the edges of the 

 continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico, from 

 Cape Hatteras, N.C., to Cape Cod, Mass., and off La 

 Guaira, Venezuela. A less known concentration in late 

 summer and early fall occurs outside the Strait of 

 Gibraltar. 



Gibbs (1957) studied seasonal variations of longline 

 catches in relation to water temperature in the Gulf of 

 Mexico. He noted a summer concentration off the 

 Mississippi Delta, which dispersed as the water cooled 

 in fall. This concentration and another at the De Soto 

 Canyon in the northeastern Gulf contribute impor- 

 tantly to sport fisheries based at New Orleans, La.; 

 Mobile, Ala.; and Pensacola, Panama City, and 

 Destin, Fla. (Mather et al., 1972; Nakamura and 

 Rivas, 1972). Some successful sport fishing for white 

 marlin has also occurred at the edge of the continental 

 shelf off Port Aransas, Tex. (M. H. Weil, pers. com- 

 mun.). White marlin are available to the sport 

 fisheries in the Gulf from early June into October, 

 with peak abundance off the delta in July and at the 

 De Soto Canyon in August. 



The concentration of white marlin which supports 

 the largest sport fishery for this species in the world 

 occurs in summer between Cape Hatteras and Cape 

 Cod (Farrington, 1937, 1949a, 1949b; Earle, 1940; June 

 and Reintjes, 1957; Migdalski, 1958; de Sylva and 

 Davis, 1963; Brooks, 1968). The greatest concentra- 

 tion of fishing is between Oregon Inlet, N.C., and 



Atlantic City, N.J. In the earlier years, most of this 

 fishing was within 30 or 40 miles of shore, on shoals 

 such as the famous "Jack Spot" off Ocean City, Md., 

 and other productive areas. In recent years, however, 

 most of the successful fishing has been nearly 80 miles 

 offshore, concentrating around the canyons at the 

 edge of the continental shelf, from Norfolk Canyon off 

 the Chesapeake Capes to Block Canyon off eastern 

 Long Island. 



The northeastern limit of the usual summer coastal 

 occurrence of white marlin is off Nantucket Island, 

 south of eastern Cape Cod, Mass. The species occurs 

 further east and north on Georges Bank and the Nova 

 Scotia Banks, especially along their oceanic edges 

 (Farrington, 1949b; J. S. Beckett, pers. commun.) but 

 rarely enters the Gulf of Maine. We know of only two 

 records from coastal waters in the Gulf. Both were 

 from traps at Provincetown, Mass. (John A. 

 Worthington, pers. commun.). The first of these 

 specimens, taken in August 1960, was deposited in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Universi- 

 ty, Cambridge, Mass., as the first positive record of 

 this species from the Gulf of Maine. Farrington 

 (1949b), however, reports occurrences off the coast of 

 Nova Scotia. 



A concentration of white marlin in late August, 

 September, and October off La Guaira, Venezuela, 

 furnishes some of the world's best sport fishing for this 

 species (Migdalski, 1958; Jaen, 1964; Brooks, 1968). 



In late September and October after the conclusion 

 of the sport fishing season between Cape Hatteras and 

 Cape Cod, longline catch rates are high from the edge 

 of the adjacent continental shelf eastward to long. 

 55° W. They are also good in the northern Gulf of Mex- 

 ico in this period. Longline catch rates are low 

 everywhere in the North Atlantic in November, but 

 improve in the southeastern Caribbean in December. 

 January has also been a poor month throughout the 

 North Atlantic, but in February and March there 

 have been good catches off the coast of South America 

 from Venezuela to the equator. In March, this area of 

 good fishing extends northward around the Lesser An- 

 tilles, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico up to lat. 

 25°N. In April, the concentration of catches has been 

 between lat. 15° and 25°N and long. 55° and 75°W, 

 but there was little fishing effort further west in these 

 latitudes. In May, the area of successful fishing ex- 

 tends further to the south (off western Venezuela and 

 Colombia and northeast of Cuba and the Bahamas). 

 June finds good longline fishing in the western Carib- 

 bean, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and east of the 

 Bahamas and northern Florida. 



Spring is the peak season for inshore sport fishing 

 for white marlin in the Straits of Florida and among 

 the Bahamas. Areas which support important sport 

 fisheries for this species are Havana; Bimini and Cat 

 Cay on the northwestern edge of the Great Bahama 

 Bank; the Berry Islands at the northern end of the 

 Tongue of the Ocean; and Walkers Cay at the 



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