cause it took more than mines, torpedoes, and gas 

 rationing to deter a true billfish angler. After the war, 

 better and faster sportfishing vessels, electronic 

 navigational and depth-finding gear, and greatly im- 

 proved tackle, such as Fiberglas rods and monofila- 

 ment line, improved the efficiency of the billfish and 

 tuna angler and his vessels. With these additions 

 came a new wave of wealthy and mobile anglers to 

 explore untried areas of the world. But such men 

 failed to hold the monopoly on new fishing grounds 

 and big fish because, often to the dismay of estab- 

 lished world-record holders, the "little man" with 

 no angling experience, thanks to excellent captains, 

 dedicated mates, and superb tackle and boats, has 

 frequently broken the world's record for billfish. 

 Sport fishing for marlin, sailfish. and swordfish is no 

 longer a rich man's exclusive pastime: it is now 

 within the reach of nearly anyone's budget to spend 

 $100 a day to be reasonably assured of at \eastseeing 

 a billfish. Further the thrill of hooking a billfish and 

 watching its acrobatics is virtually unparalleled in 

 the excitement of sport. 



SPECIES CAUGHT BY ANGLERS 



Data on the number of different species of bill- 

 fishes caught by anglers around the world are virtu- 

 ally non-existent. Individual anglers and captains 

 sometimes maintain logbooks, while tournaments 

 may reveal how many of the different species are 

 taken over a short time span. Probably the best 

 estimates of relative abundance are obtained from 

 taxidermists, because a billfish is considered a highly 

 desirable, spectacular trophy which can be mounted 

 as a memoir to an exciting day. Anglers apparently 

 do not differentiate in their desire to have a large fish 

 mounted in contrast to a small one, in spite of the 

 cost differential, or between a sailfish and a marlin. 

 We may thus assume that taxidermists' records pos- 

 sibly reflect the relative availability of different 

 species of billfish. Invaluable data on size, locality, 

 and date of capture are thus available for scientific 

 studies from taxidermists' records. 



Based upon such records and intuition from 

 twenty years of working with billfish and billfish 

 anglers. I suspect that in probable order of descend- 

 ing importance in terms of the number caught (or 

 released), the principal species are: sailfish, 

 lstiophorus platypterus 4 : white marlin, 



4 For the purposes of this discussion, I follow Morrow and 

 Harbo (1969) in recognizing a single, worldwide species. Simi- 

 larly, for the purposes of this review, I concur with our earlier 



Tetrapturus albidus; blue marlin, Makaira nigri- 

 cans; striped marlin, Tetrapturus audax; black 

 marlin, Makaira indica; swordfish, Xiphias 

 gladius; and longbill spearfish, Tetrapturus pflue- 

 geri (see Robins and de Sylva, 1961 and 1963, for a 

 discussion of recent nomenclature). The shortbill 

 spearfish, Tetrapturus angustirostris, from the 

 Indo-Pacific, is largely confined to the high seas. A 

 specimen has been taken from Australia (Goadby, 

 1970) on hook and line, while it is occasionally taken 

 by anglers in Hawaii (Peter Fithian, personal com- 

 munication). In recent years, anglers fishing off 

 southern California have become familiar with this 

 species; William L. Craig (personal communication) 

 reports the following verified catches by anglers: off 

 the Coronado Islands, 4 September 1966, 5 feet, 20% 

 pounds; 20 miles southwest of North Coronado 

 Island, 31 August 1968, 4 3 /i pounds; 20 miles south of 

 Pyramid Head, San Clemente Island, 28 August 

 1969, 45 pounds. The Mediterranean spearfish, Tet- 

 rapturus belone, though locally and seasonally 

 common off Sicily, has not been reported from an- 

 glers' catches (de Sylva, 1973). 



The remaining known member of the billfish 

 group, the roundscale spearfish, Tetrapturus 

 georgei, from the northeastern Atlantic and west- 

 ern Mediterranean, is apparently quite rare and, to 

 our knowledge, has not been taken by anglers (Rob- 

 ins, 1974a). 



The identity of two unidentified specimens of bill- 

 fish has not been clarified. A juvenile specimen of 

 about 40 mm, on loan to the author from the British 

 Museum (Natural History), was lost in a fire in 1967. 

 The specimen had peculiar markings on the dorsal 

 fin which are reminiscent of those of the white marlin 

 (de Sylva and Ueyanagi, MS). Neither the adult of 

 T. belone nor that of T. georgei has extensive mark- 

 ings on the dorsal fin; possibly this represents the 

 juvenile of an undescribed species which, though 

 rare, could enter into the sport fishery. 



The other unidentified billfish, from the northern 

 Gulf of Mexico, poses special problems. A speci- 

 men was caught by Robert Ewing off South Pass 

 (Mississippi River; delta of Louisiana) and, while 

 superficially resembling a white marlin, lacks the 

 distinctive pattern of spots on the dorsal fin, and the 

 dorsal and anal fins are not typically those from a 

 white marlin. I have heard of two other specimens 

 taken from the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. John 



findings (Robins and de Sylva. 1961) that the blue marlin rep- 

 resents a single, circumtropical species. 



14 



