into May instead of only into February. 



3. Some of these fish winter as far north as 

 off the Carolinas. 



4. These fish migrate northward in spring 

 through the Yucatan Channel and the Straits 

 of Florida and through the Atlantic waters 

 off the West Indies and the Bahamas. 



5. Some of them migrate northward through 

 the Mona Passage. 



6. Some of them were recaptured in the Gulf 

 of Mexico in the spring and summer of 1971 

 for the first time. It is uncertain whether this 

 represents an unusual migration, or unusu- 

 ally heavy fishing effort. 



7. Most of the white marlin in this group re- 

 turn to the summering area repeatedly, but 

 some do not. 



8. Two fish tagged off the northwestern 

 Bahamas in spring have followed the migra- 

 tory pattern of this group to its summering 

 area. 



B. Fish of other groups. 



1. Many white marlin summer in the Gulf of 

 Mexico and winter in the Straits of Florida 

 or among the northwestern Bahamas. 



2. Some of the fish which concentrate off 

 Venezuela in late summer and early fall 

 move to off the Guianas in late fall; others 

 may merely move northward to deeper 

 water. 



3. The longest migration recorded for a white 

 marlin was from off the northwestern 

 Bahamas to about 600 miles east-northeast of 

 the mouth of the Amazon, a distance of 

 about 2,700 nautical miles. This migration 

 has no apparent relation to the others re- 

 corded by tag returns and is the closest ap- 

 proach to the South Atlantic by a white mar- 

 lin tagged in the North Atlantic. 



C. General. 



1. The longevity of the species has been 

 further demonstrated by record times at lib- 

 erty for tagged fish of 55.2 and 58.7 mo. 



2. A new calculation using more tag return 

 data shows an estimated mortality rate of 

 30%. 



3. The white marlin in the North Atlantic are 

 separate from those of the South Atlantic. 



Blue Marlin 



1 . A group of blue marlin may spend the warm 



season in the Gulf of Mexico and the cold sea- 

 son among the northwestern Bahamas. 

 2. A tagged blue marlin weighing about 90 kg 

 when released approximately doubled its 

 weight in 30 mo at liberty. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The authors are most grateful to all the organiza- 

 tions and individuals who have assisted this re- 

 search. 



The principal financial support of this work since 

 1956 has been from the National Science Founda- 

 tion (Grants G-861. G-2102. G-8339, G-6172. 

 G-19601. GB-3464 and GH-82), the Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries (now National Marine 

 Fisheries Service) (Contracts 14-17-0007-272, -547. 

 -870, -975. and -1 1 10). and the Office of Sea Grant. 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

 U.S. Department of Commerce (Grant GH-82). 

 Important additional support has been received from 

 the Sport Fishing Institute; the Charles W. Brown, 

 Jr., Memorial Foundation; the Tournament of 

 Champions (through Mrs. R.C. Kunkel and E. D. 

 Martin); A. Minis, Jr.; the Joseph A. Teti, Jr., 

 Foundation; the Port Aransas Rod and Reel Club; 

 P.A.B. Widener; the Jersey Cape Fishing Tourna- 

 ment; the Associates of the Woods Hole Oceano- 

 graphic Institution; and many other sportsmen's or- 

 ganizations and individual sportsmen. 



The National Marine Fisheries Service and its 

 predecessor, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 

 the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, 

 the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, the Food 

 and Agriculture Organization of the United Na- 

 tions, and many other national and private research 

 organizations have assisted in the promoting of the 

 tagging of fishes, the collection and processing of 

 data, and the dissemination of information on the 

 program and its results. In particular, Albert C. 

 Jones contributed the mortality estimates for white 

 marlin. 



The tagging results were made possible by the 

 thousands of anglers, captains, and mates who have 

 tagged, and released many of their catches, and the 

 clubs, committees, and individuals who have en- 

 couraged tagging. We regret that space does not 

 permit individual acknowledgments here; the major 

 participants are listed in the informal progress re- 

 ports which are issued periodically by the Woods 



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