272 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



teeth. The fish is found on both coasts of America; on the Atlantic from 

 Maine to Brazil. Other species occur in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. 

 It is a schooling, warm-water, surface fish going north in the spring and 

 south in the winter. It spawns in Chesapeake Bay in late spring and early- 

 summer and is there from May to September, and in quantity in Florida 

 from November to March. The fish is said to reach a weight of 20 pounds 

 but is more usually about i;^ to four pounds. There is no rod and reel 

 record. 



BLUE MARLIN 



Makaira nigricans ampla (Poey) 



The blue marlin, one of the two species of Makaira known to occur in 

 the Atlantic, is one of the most famous big game fishes in the world. It runs 

 larger than the white marlin, and averages 200 pounds or more. The rod 

 and reel record, taken in June, 1949, off Bimini, weighed 742 pounds. There 

 is no detailed record of its occurrence in other than Bahaman and United 

 States waters. Although it has been identified as far south as the Leeward 

 and Windward Islands, its southern limit has not been established. Its 

 actual northern limit appears to be Bimini, B.W.I. , but stragglers appear 

 with some regularity off Miami and Palm Beach, and, in very small numbers 

 and irregularly, are sighted off Bermuda, Maryland, Montauk, Block Island 

 and Georges Bank. The seasons and places of its occurrence as far as 

 determined are: 



Windward and Leeward Islands: sometime between January and June. 



Cuba: April through October, particularly August and September; 

 rumored to be present all year on both north and south coasts. 



Bimini: January through August, especially June and July. 



Florida: January through April, increasing in number toward the end 

 of the season. 



Maryland: July and August. 



North Carolina: Two blue marlin taken off Cape Hatteras; one in July 

 1938; one in July 1939, in the Gulf Stream. Other reports unconfirmed. 



The blue marlin is known to spawn off or very near the north coast of 

 Cuba, where females with eggs about to rupture the membrane are frequently 

 taken in August and September. There is a commercial fishery for it in 

 Cuba. 



The blue marlin seems to be concentrated in the deep column of warm 

 temperature water between Cuba and the western edge of the Great Bahamas 

 bank. This column may at times streak to the north, accounting for 

 stragglers. At any rate, the contrast between! the numbers of blue marlin 

 present in it, and the small number ever taken or sighted out of it, is too 

 marked to be ignored. Nor is this a question of where anglers have happened 



