concern is expressed by each interest that his own 

 kind of fishing may eventually be excluded. 



An article in the New York Times, during 

 November. 1969, revealed a brief economic survey 

 carried out by one of their reporters prior to the U . S. 

 Atlantic Tuna Tournament. Tournament anglers 

 were polled prior to the tournament concerning ex- 

 penses incurred in catching billfish and tunas, includ- 

 ing the money spent when fish were not caught. 

 Perhaps not surprisingly, they reported that the av- 

 erage cost to the angler to catch a sailfish was $4,000, 

 a blue marlin $10,000, and a swordfish $20,000. One 

 may argue that these figures may be too high or too 

 low; nevertheless, they indicate the economic im- 

 portance of the sport fishery for billfishes. 



It is especially noteworthy that both the commer- 

 cial and sport fisheries are based on biological re- 

 sources about which we know very little, nor do we 

 understand much about the environment of bill- 

 fishes. They spend their life cycle on the "high 

 seas," where their breeding and feeding must be 

 studied from inference, based on examination of 

 dead specimens. We can generally only speculate 

 on their habits and attempt to forecast what 

 oceanographic conditions may be associated with 

 their movements; to attempt to maintain and study 

 a 200-kg marlin in a tank is presumably beyond the 

 technological capabilities of even the most clever 

 aquarists. 



A preliminary bibliography of the billfishes (de 

 Sylva and Howard, MS)' contains over 2.000 refer- 

 ences, yet even if we use the sum total of knowledge 

 of these references, which dates back over 400 

 years, we really have very little comprehensive 

 knowledge about the habits of the billfishes. We 

 must be especially grateful to the Japanese commer- 

 cial fishermen and scientists working with them, as 

 well as fishermen and scientists of other countries, 

 who have so enriched the literature with their study 

 of thousands of billfishes from all over the world. To 

 those bi'lfish anglers who decry the large number of 

 billfishes caught by Japanese longlines, the following 

 quote from the late Colonel John K. Howard (in 

 Howard and Ueyanagi, 1965:4) seems in order: "In 

 the last analysis, if it were not for the extraordinary 

 foresightedness, initiative, and organizing ability of 

 the great Japanese fishery companies, as well as the 

 energy, high quality of seamanship, and great tech- 



^ de Sylva, Donald P. and John K. Howard. 1972. A prelimi- 

 nary bibliography of billfishes (Istiophoridae. Xiphiidae. and re- 

 lated fossil families). U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. 

 July, 1972. 160 pp. Mimeogr. 



nical fishing skill of their ships' officers and crews, 

 there would be no catches of istiophorid fishes from 

 all over the world to serve so usefully in this 

 distribution study." 



It is difficult to ascertain just how long man has 

 intentionally fished for billfishes for sport, but such 

 recreation is probably a relatively recent product of 

 our age of leisure. Billfishes have been caught for 

 food commercially for centuries, using harpoons, 

 longlines. traps, or nets, but it is only with the rela- 

 tively recent appearance of multiplying reels, lami- 

 nated bamboo poles and Fiberglas rods, and light 

 line that man could hope to derive pleasure from 

 fighting a billfish in a reasonably sportsmanlike 

 manner. 



In the Pacific, the first billfish to be taken on hook 

 and line was a striped marlin taken in 1903 off Ava- 

 lon, California (Howard in Howard and Ueyanagi, 

 1965:10). Sport fishing for billfishes could not have 

 been well developed at the turn of the century, for 

 Charles F. Holder, one of the deans of early big 

 game fishing, and founder of the Tuna Club at Ava- 

 lon, California, in his comprehensive book "Big 

 game fishes of the United States" (Holder, 1903), 

 does not mention swordfish, marlin, or sailfish. It is 

 believed, however, that Holder was also one of the 

 pioneers in the popularization of fishing for sailfish in 

 Florida, probably during the period from 1905 to 

 1910. Angling for billfish remained the sport of the 

 very wealthy, and it was not followed by many de- 

 votees until the 1920's when Ernest Hemingway 

 synonymized billfishing in the Bahamas and off 

 Cuba with gutsy adventure stories. It was also about 

 this time when Zane Grey became enthralled with 

 his angling experiences with giant swordfish and 

 marlin in the Pacific. These narratives certainly 

 must have tingled the hearts of those thousands of 

 snowbound northerners who vicariously sped off to 

 sea to troll for "The Big One. " 



Up to the time of World War II, billfishing, as well 

 as tuna fishing, grew in popularity, especially off 

 Florida, the Bahamas, and southern California. Dur- 

 ing this time Hemingway, Tommy Gifford, Van 

 Campen Heilner, Michael Lemer, Kip Farrington, 

 Zane Grey, and John K. Howard were among those 

 pursuing the ocean gamesters with relatively primi- 

 tive fishing vessels and tackle. 



The war found many of the marlin.boats and their 

 skippers tied up in antisubmarine service or Coast 

 Guard patrols. Nevertheless, sport fishing for bill- 

 fishes, and even marlin tournaments such as at 

 Ocean Citv. Maryland, continued sporadically be- 



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