Figure 5. — Movements ofbillfishes from taggmg conducted during the months of October, 

 November, and December. Striped marlin unless otherwise noted as SF (sailfish). 



along the east side of the tip of Baja California have 

 shown some movement about the tip to the west 

 and noilhwest. The longest southward migration of 

 any tagged striped marlin was recorded during this 

 period; the marlin' s total straight line migration was 

 1,153 nautical miles from near the tip of Baja 

 California to near Clipperton Island in 71 days (re- 

 ference. Fig. 3). 



July, August, September. — A reduction in tag- 

 ging effort due to fewer sportfishermen traveling to 

 the tip of Baja California and the west coast of Mex- 

 ico during the warm season is reflected in the num- 

 bers ofbillfishes tagged and later recovered. Short 

 distance sailfish recoveries were made near 

 Mazatlan. A sailfish, tagged during this period off 

 Mazatlan, was recovered northwest of the tip of 

 Baja California, a distance of 250 nautical miles, 

 after 457 days. This sailfish recovery was the 

 greatest in distance and time (reference. Fig. 4). 



Striped marlin fishing becomes productive off 

 southern California in late August and two re- 

 coveries were made off the southern west coast of 

 Baja California of striped marlin tagged off southern 

 California in September. One recovery was made of 

 a striped marlin tagged off Guaymas, Mexico, 



which is located on the east coast in the upper Gulf 

 of California, and recaptured south of the tip of 

 Baja California 17 days later. 



October, November, December. — This is a 

 period of reduced tagging throughout all eastern 

 Pacific sportfishing areas. A limited amount of tag- 

 ging off southern California has yielded returns, one 

 being the second longest return recorded, 2,090 

 nautical miles to the southwest in 179 days. Three 

 recoveries of striped marlin tagged off southern 

 California were recovered northwest of the tip of 

 Baja California 1 to 4 months later (reference. Fig. 

 5). 



As in any conventional tagging or marking pro- 

 gram only two points in the migration are known 

 — the location of tagging and the tag recovery point. 

 The geographical migratory course of the billfish 

 between these two points is unknown. 



Southwestern Pacific 



Through the cooperation of anglers fishing for 

 black marlin near Cairns, Queensland, Australia, 

 recoveries of two tagged black marlin have been 

 recorded (Fig. 6). One was recovered by a Japanese 



233 



