that the results, even though negative, will be scien- 

 tifically acceptable. It has been my experience that 

 few students will attempt theses as risky as those 

 involved studying the unpredictable billfish. One 

 answer may be in providing adequate funds to 

 senior investigators who can conduct long-term re- 

 search and relegate a small portion of that research 

 to their students for a suitable graduate degree. 



Once all of this research has been completed, how 

 does it relate to the angler, the boat captain, and the 

 management of the resource? The biological and 

 environmental data, used judiciously, can serve as 

 management tools. Through cooperative studies 

 which actively involve the angler and boat captain, 

 the scientist can obtain biological, statistical, and 

 environmental data. Such data can be valuable to the 

 angler and boat captain, for the scientist may be able 

 to make reasonably accurate forecasts of when and 

 where the billfish angler should fish, at what depth, 

 at what time, using what kind of bait, and at what 

 trolling speed. These are not unreasonable demands 

 of the angler to make of the scientist. 



Scientists should also work with the boat captain 

 and the sportfishing industry in the application of 

 behavioral principles in developing new kinds of arti- 

 ficial lures which utilize the visual or sonic responses 

 of billfish, or in developing of artificial floating 

 habitats which might attract and concentrate billfish. 

 This scientific information should be sorted out in 

 such a way as to be meaningful for the layman to 

 understand the fish they seek, and possibly to catch 

 more billfish or even to be able to catch billfish when 

 no one else can. To date, marine science has greatly 

 aided commercial fisheries, but there are few in- 

 stances where marine science has contributed prac- 

 tical solutions to the anglers' problems. 



POSTSCRIPT 



The foregoing discussion of the billfish, boats, 

 gear, angling methods for billfish, and the future 

 pertains to the most successful kind of billfish an- 

 gling. Yet we know that such expense and time can 

 only be enjoyed by a small percentage of recreational 

 fishermen in a small part of the world. Parentheti- 

 cally, we may ask ourselves why we need or even 

 tolerate such expensive pleasures in a world fraught 

 with hunger, disease, hatred, and war? Possibly, we 

 may reply, if we had the option for some form of 

 relaxation, from throwing pebbles in the pond in 

 Iowa to trolling for black marlin off Australia, that 

 such relaxation regardless of expense, could enable 

 us to be at peace with ourselves and our fellow men. 

 One may argue whether we really need something 

 as expensive as angling for billfish. But how many 

 of us, either as oceanographers, or anglers, or 

 plumbers, or book clerks, rest our Mitty-like hopes 

 and imagination in defeating the invading Mongol 

 hordes, or in subduing the Nile crocodile, or in or- 

 biting the moon, or — something with which all of us 

 can identify — in landing that monster blue marlin 

 off Tahiti that Zane Grey once told us about? 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The late Colonel John K. Howard was especially 

 helpful in supplying information and data on sport 

 fishing for billfish in all parts of the world. The late 

 Albert Swartz and Al Pflueger, Sr., and Richard H. 

 Stroud and Paul E. Thompson gave freely of their 

 time and suggestions. 



This research was supported in part by the Bureau 

 of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Contracts BSFW 

 I4-16-0008-775/DI-14-16-0008-957, and the Maytag 

 Chair of Ichthyology, University of Miami. 



The key words are cooperation and advice which 

 will benefit all parties without damaging the billfish 

 resources. A first step is to determine //'commercial 

 fishermen can continue to take large quantities of 

 billfish without depleting the resource or reducing 

 the billfish sport fishery catch. A second point is that 

 environmental degradation favors neither sport nor 

 commercial fishermen. All persons interested in bill- 

 fishes and billfishing must work together openly and 

 intelligently, as we have done at this Symposium, to 

 resolve alleged differences among ourselves, to 

 abate marine pollution, and to urge more research 

 and intelligent communication. 



LITERATURE CITED 



CORDEIRA, A. 



1958. Espadartes do Sesimbra. Pedidos a Edigoes 

 •'DIANA,'" Ave. Infante Santo, Lisbon, 89 pp. 

 DERANIYAGALA. P. E. P. 



1937. The swordfish Xiphias of the Indian Ocean. Ceylon 

 J. Sci.. Sec. B, 20(3):347-349. 

 DE SYLVA, D. P. 



1957. Studies on the age and growth of the Atlantic sailfish, 

 Istiophorus americanus (Cuvier). using length-frequency 

 curves. Bull. Mar. Sci. Gulf Caribb. 7(1): 1-20. 

 1963. Preliminary report on the blue marlin sport fishery 

 off Port Antonio, Jamaica. Inst. Mar. Sci., Univ. of 

 Miami, Spec. Rept.. 15 pp.. mimeogr. 



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