Table 1. — Releases (after slash) and returns (before slash) for sailfish, by years, areas, and programs. 



Returns are listed by year and area of release. 



The releases in this area were inainly (64.7%) in 

 the period November-February, with a secondary 

 period (14. 1%) in April-May. The returns within the 

 release area followed a similar pattern, with major- 

 ity (44) in the period November-February, but 

 March was the most productive among the other 

 months, with seven returns (Appendix Tables 2-4). 

 The recapture off North Carolina was in July; the 

 one off the Bahamas in December; the two off 

 Havana in May and August; and the three in the Gulf 

 of Mexico also in May (one) and August (two) (Ap- 

 pendix Table 1). 



Five hundred and eight sailfish were tagged off 

 the northwestern Bahamas, and four of these tags 

 have been returned (Table 1 , Fig. 2, Appendix Table 

 5). One of these was recaptured off the Florida 

 Keys, one off Cabo Cruz on the southeastern coast 

 of Cuba, two off Havana. Unfortunately there is 

 some doubt about the identity of the last two fish, 

 since the fisherman who recaptured them reported 



that they were sailfish. but the taggers had listed 

 them as white marlin. 



The releases off the northwestern Bahamas are 

 concentrated in April-July (80%) with a good 

 number (8%) in August (Table 2). The two recap- 

 tures off Havana were in May and July, the one off 

 southeastern Cuba in March, and the one in the 

 Florida Keys in May (Appendix Table 5). 



Fishermen have released 2,358 sailfish in the 

 Gulf of Mexico (1,829 near Port Aransas, Texas, 

 and 429 in the north central and northeastern Gulf) 

 and eight returns have resulted, including four from 

 each area (Table 1. Fig. 2, Appendix Table 6). Two 

 of the recaptures (one in each area) were local. The 

 other three returns from sailfish tagged off Port 

 Aransas showed migrations to the Florida Keys, 

 the vicinity of Palm Beach, Florida, and off the 

 north central coast of Cuba. The remaining three 

 sailfish tagged in the northeastern Gulf were recap- 

 tured near Havana, off the northeast coast of Cuba, 



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