ences, and a host of other items. This Symposium 

 may have had its roots with the Sport Fishing Insti- 

 tute, because it was this organization which met 

 informally with Japanese negotiators in Brazil in 

 May, 1966, at the height of the controversy between 

 sport fishermen and Japanese longline fishermen, to 

 reach peaceable, workable solutions. This meeting 

 also focused attention on the need for much more 

 biological, statistical, and economic data on billfish, 

 which various research organizations have attempt- 

 ed to collect since that meeting. 



Agencies such as the Sport Fishing Institute can 

 act catalytically to bring together anglers, scientists, 

 boat captains, commercial fisheries interests, and 

 state, local, and national governments. They can 

 promote the ideas for the development of new kinds 

 of lures, sonic or optical teasers, better boats and 

 navigational equipment, new kinds of baits, and 

 scores of concepts which, if effected, would benefit 

 everyone. Most of all. such an organization can 

 promote good will among all factions and can help 

 prevent much of the misunderstanding and distrust 

 which frequently occurs when several kinds of ex- 

 ploiters are competing for the same resource. 



The Multiple-use Concept for Billfish 



Billfishes perhaps represent one of the ideal or- 

 ganisms to mankind. They are spectacular fighting 

 fish for the angler, and their unpredictable leaps, 

 jumps, skittering, greyhounding, and tailwalking 

 have resulted in reverent terms for billfish acrobatics 

 when they are being hooked and fought. When re- 

 leased, they give the angler a spiritual sense of 

 gratification in having let a magnificent sea creature 

 go, to swim again with its man-spared life, perhaps to 

 take his or someone else's hook one day. Even bet- 

 ter, a fish marked with a tag may be caught again, 

 possibly a few miles away, or possibly several 

 thousand miles away and several years from now. to 

 give science valuable information on its habits. 



When mounted by a taxidermist and, posed on the 

 den wall, a billfish is a magnificent memento of a 

 splendid day's action. The profit to the taxidermist is 

 considerable, while the agent, who may be a boat 

 captain, a mate, a dockmaster. as a specific task, 

 receives a percentage of the taxidermist's cost, 

 which averages about $2 per inch, which isn't really 

 very much after one has spent perhaps a thousand 

 dollars to get to the angling grounds. 



A billfish caught by an angler and kept chilled or 

 out of the sun is still available as food. Fresh billfish 



are excellent to eat and, depending on the species, 

 range from fair to excellent as food. Billfish can be 

 eaten fresh, smoked, canned, salted, baked, fried, 

 curried, sauteed, or, especially, smoked. Smoked 

 billfish is somewhat like Canadian bacon in flavor, 

 and can be served as a staple food or hors d'oeuvres. 

 Few fish are more adaptable or have fewer small 

 bones for the connoisseur to discard. 



Finally, after the fish is hooked, fought, landed, 

 professionally photographed, skinned and mounted, 

 smoked, and eaten, the last remnants of the fish — the 

 bones and guts — still remain for the scientist to 

 study. Billfish can, of course, be carefully and easily 

 skinned so that the fish is intact for a taxidermist's 

 mounting yet remains available for scientific study. 

 In short, the billfish is the complete fish for the 

 complete angler — something for everyone. To avoid 

 excessive support for my taxidermist colleagues, 

 I will avoid a discussion of the extremely valuable 

 information which they freely supply to scientists, 

 such as specimens, stomach contents, and gonad 

 collections. 



Thus, a billfish is truly a multipurpose fish, a sort 

 of biological schmoo, as long as there are plenty of 

 them to satisfy the needs of all legitimate interests 

 while still maintaining the biological stocks. The ra- 

 tional utilization and management of these stocks 

 must necessarily depend on scientific information 

 derived from size composition, population esti- 

 mates, and growth and mortality calculations. As 

 long as the scientist believes that there are adequate 

 biological stocks to support a sport and commercial 

 fishery, then there appears to be no reason why 

 billfish can not be utilized for as many human- 

 oriented uses as possible, other factors being equal. 

 Billfish as food, as taxidermists' mounts, and as 

 scientific specimens should thus be utilized, either 

 by catching, mounting, studying, and eating them or 

 by tagging and releasing them. It is here, especially, 

 where a cooperative management and marketing 

 program, or both, is needed on the part of anglers, 

 the sport fishing industry, guides and captains, and 

 governments. The best use for a resource is rational 

 economic and biological exploitation, rather than 

 "blind" conservation (de Sylva, 1957). 



The ever-present problem in billfish research 

 deals with conservation versus aesthetics. Scientists 

 may hate to see a magnificent marlin brought in to 

 the dock, hung on a hook for photography, and al- 

 lowed to rot, while anglers feel exactly the same 

 way. Yet both groups are displaying emotions. The 

 scientist must determine if such a demise for large 



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