sportfishing facilities are not well developed there. 

 Striped marlin are also very common in northern 

 Chile and are taken by sport anglers fishing off 

 Iquique. Black marlin and sailfish may occur when 

 tongues of warm water penetrate from the north. 



Swordfish, striped marlin, and black marlin histor- 

 ically are relatively common in Peru. Large blacks 

 have been taken by commercial and sport fishermen 

 working out of Cabo Blanco, but in recent years 

 angling has attenuated in part due to an apparent lack 

 of interest by foreign anglers and allegedly in part 

 due to the reported offshore displacement of the 

 Peru Current which harbors these large billfish and 

 the complex food web upon which the large billfishes 

 depend. 



Large black and striped marlin occur abundantly 

 all along the Ecuadorian coast, outside of the Gulf of 

 Guayaquil, between Mantaand Esmeraldas, includ- 

 ing Isla de la Plata. Recently, excellent angling for 

 striped marlin has been reported off La Puntilla, 

 west of Guayaquil. Blue marlin and sailfish are 

 common when warm currents predominate, while 

 black and striped marlin favor cooler waters, as do 

 the occasional swordfish hooked offshore. 



Sport fishing for billfish has never been adequately 

 explored along Colombia's west coast. Very large 

 sailfish and black marlin are seen or hooked 

 offshore, especially around Gorgona and Gorgonilla 

 Islands, southwest of Buenaventura. Blue marlin 

 are also reported here and, undoubtedly, striped 

 marlin occur seasonally during cooler periods. 



Western Central America. — Billfishing is excel- 

 lent all along Panama's Pacific coast. Pinas Bay and 

 the Pearl Islands are historically the headquarters 

 for excellent billfishing in Panama waters where 

 black, blue, and occasionally striped marlin abound. 

 Sailfish are especially large and plentiful all along 

 Pacific Panama. Anglers devoted to fishing with 

 light tackle and artificial flies speak reverently of 

 sailfishing in these waters. 



Some sport fishing for Pacific sailfish occurs near 

 Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Heavy surf and swells re- 

 duce the feasibility of launching small angling boats 

 safely. 



Off Nicaragua, black marlin and sailfish are re- 

 ported by commercial fishermen, but the surf and 

 swell are similar to that of the Costa Rican coast. In 

 addition to the lack of adequate sportfishing ports 

 and facilities, the sea conditions discourage sport 

 fishing for billfishes. 



The Pacific coast of Honduras northward to Mex- 

 ico is characterized by a shortage of large waterfront 



cities and suitable ports. El Salvador commercial 

 fishermen report sailfish from this coast. However, 

 this entire region, though rich in fish and good fishing 

 waters, suffers from a lack of protected harbors and 

 fishing docks, facilities which are expensive and dif- 

 ficult to build and maintain. 



Western North America. — Sailfish, striped mar- 

 lin, blue marlin, and, to a lesser extent, black marlin 

 occur all along Mexico's Pacific coast. The best- 

 known ports are Acapulco and Mazatlan, although 

 in recent years Cabo San Lucas (in Baja California) 

 and Manzanillo have reported excellent catches of 

 billfishes. Sailfish and striped marlin are common in 

 the lower parts of the Gulf of California as far as Isla 

 Tiburon. Commercial longliners fishingjust offshore 

 of these areas have captured prodigious numbers of 

 striped marlin and sailfish; their efforts are evidently 

 affecting the size of the individual sport fisherman's 

 catch (Gottschalk, 1972). Swordfish are frequently 

 seen off Baja California and are occasionally hooked 

 by anglers. 



Striped marlin and swordfish have been fished by 

 anglers since the turn of the century. The Tuna Club 

 of Avalon has consistently made good catches along 

 the continental shelfof southern California (Howard 

 and Ueyanagi, 1965). Recent shifts in the currents 

 off southern California apparently have affected the 

 distribution of swordfish and striped marlin and their 

 availability to the angler. 



Europe. — Sport fishing for billfishes in European 

 waters is limited, and concentrated about the Straits 

 of Gibraltar and the western Mediterranean Sea. 

 Spanish and Portuguese anglers fish for broadbill 

 swordfish (Cordeira, 1958) and catch an occasional 

 white marlin; these species are also caught around 

 the Azores. According to various reports from the 

 journal Mondo Sommerso, sport fishing for white 

 marlin is frequently successful in the Ligurian Sea, 

 off northwestern Italy, while blue marlin are also 

 occasionally taken (Mondo Sommerso, 1968). Most 

 angling is sporadic, however, because of the relative 

 scarcity of billfishes other than swordfish. Little 

 angling information for swordfish is available for 

 most of the Mediterranean, and it is unknown if sport 

 fishing is presently carried out in the Black Sea or the 

 Sea of Azov. Swordfish are taken commercially 

 from the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov (La Monte 

 and Marcy, 1941). La Monte and Marcy reported 

 that, at the time of their writing, there was no sport 

 fishing for swordfish in the Sea of Marmora (Tur- 

 key), though Lebedeff (1936) reported excellent 

 angling there for swordfish. Mediterranean spearfish 



19 



