A total of 7 recaptures in September and October 

 show " "direct" off-shore migrations (indicated by 

 arrows connecting release area and recapture loca- 

 tion in Fig. 3) by fish which had been tagged during 

 the summer of, or immediately preceding, their re- 

 capture. Eight other offshore recaptures in the same 

 months were of fish which had been tagged in the 

 summers of previous years. These fish presumably 

 had returned to the general release area, and de- 

 parted from it, in the summer of the year in which 

 they were recaptured. The recaptures are widely 

 scattered, but show a general tendency to migrate 

 into deeper water in directions predominantly be- 

 tween east and south. 



The single offshore recaptures in June and July 

 were probably of fish which were approaching the 

 summering areas on the continental shelf off the 

 middle Atlantic coast and on the edge of the Nova 

 Scotia Banks, respectively. It should be noted, 

 however, that Japanese longline vessels take small 

 catches of white marlin (less than 0.5 fish per 100 

 hooks) in these offshore waters during the summer 

 months (Mather et al.. 1972). 



Group B. — Twelve of the 16 new recaptures in 

 Group B (released in Area A and recaptured in 

 Area B) (Fig. 1, Appendix Table 2) fitted the pat- 

 tern proposed by Mather et al., 1972, but the other 4 

 deviated from it considerably. The new recaptures 

 were in January (1), March (1), April (2), May (5), 

 June (5), and August (2). The earlier recaptures had 

 been in April (5), May (8), June (6), and July (3). 

 The recaptures in January and August differ greatly 

 from previous results. The three previous January 

 recaptures of fish tagged in Area A had been about 

 20° farther south, in Area C, and the 21 other Au- 

 gust recoveries of fish tagged in Area A were in the 

 release area. Three of the new recoveries were in 

 the Gulf of Mexico in 1971, where, with the excep- 

 tion of the immediate vicinity of Havana, no white 

 marlin tagged in northern waters had previously 

 been recaptured. Data on the effort of the Japanese 

 longline fishery in 1971 will help to determine 

 whether these returns from the Gulf of Mexico rep- 

 resent an unusual migration by white marlin from 

 Area A. or merely reflect an unusual amount of 

 fishing effort in the Gulf, 3 in that year. The fish 



3 Dr. Eiji Hanamoto (pers. comm.) has informed us that an 

 unusually large number of Japanese longline vessels fished in the 

 Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 1971. 



recaptured in the Gulf in June might possibly have 

 continued its return migration to Area A. but it 

 seems most probable that the two which were re- 

 captured in August had shifted their summer habitat 

 from Area A to the Gulf of Mexico. The three ear- 

 lier July recaptures off Havana of fish which had 

 been tagged in Area A also suggest that not all of 

 the fish which have summered in the Cape Cod- 

 Cape Hatteras area return there in succeeding 

 summers. 



Six of the new recaptures were in the Straits of 

 Florida in April-June, bringing to 20 the total 

 number of spring and early summer recaptures 

 there of Group B fish. This is further evidence that 

 an important component of the "middle Atlantic" 

 white marlin stock passes northward through the 

 Yucatan Channel and the Straits of Florida in 

 spring. 



There is also further evidence that another size- 

 able component of this stock migrates northward or 

 northwestward in Atlantic waters off the Greater 

 Antilles and east and north of the Bahamas. Six 

 new recoveries of Group B fish occurred in this 

 area — 1 in January, 1 in March, 2 in May, and 2 in 

 June. The earlier returns in the area included 1 in 

 April, 3 in May, and 3 in June. The return in March 

 represents a slight, but not surprising, increase in 

 the period of recapture of Group B fish, but, as 

 noted previously, the recapture in January differs 

 radically from all of our previous results. 



A new recapture in May in the Mona Passage is 

 most interesting since it indicates that components 

 of the northward spring migration of "middle Atlan- 

 tic" white marlin from Area C traverse the pas- 

 sages between the Greater Antilles, as well as the 

 Yucatan Channel and the waters along the Atlantic 

 sides of the islands. 



Group C. — Two of the 8 new returns in Group C 

 (fish released in Area A and recaptured in Area C) 

 (Fig. 1, Appendix Table 3) extend the period of 

 recoveries for this group well into the spring. The 

 new recaptures include 2 in December, 2 in 

 January, 1 in February, 1 in April, 1 in May, and 1 

 at an unknown date. The earlier returns comprised 

 1 in October, 4 in November, 4 in December. 1 in 

 January, and 2 in February. Unfortunately, it has 

 been impossible to obtain exact dates for some of 

 the recaptures in this area, and some of the esti- 

 mated dates may be in error. The dates of recap- 

 tures of "middle Atlantic" fish in Area B. however, 



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