Results of a Tagging Program to Determine Migration 



Rates and Patterns for Black Marlin, Makaira indica, 



in the Southwest Pacific Ocean 



JAMES L. SQUIRE, JR. 1 and DAPHNE V. NIELSEN 2 



ABSTRACT 



Marine game fish anglers reported lagging a total of 2,576 black martin, Makaira indica, from 1968 through 

 1978 near the Great Barrier Reef, north Queensland, Australia, as part of the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 Cooperative Marine Game Fish Tagging Program — Pacific Area. Sixty tagged black martin were recaptured during 

 an 11-year period for a recapture rate of 2.3%. Average weight of black martin tagged was estimated to be 175 kg 

 (385 lb). Anglers tend to overestimate weight at time of tagging and short-term recaptures (0-60 days) indicate an 

 average angler overestimate of 16 kg (35 lb) per martin. 



Sex was determined for 28 recaptures; 25 (89%) were reported as males and 3 (11%) reported as femaJes. 

 Average weight of males at recapture was 91 kg (195 lb), for females, 221 kg (488 lb). 



Vector analysis of time, distance, and direction data for tag recover} locations indicated migration direction 

 (vector mean bearing) and distance (vector mean distance from point of tagging) by periods of release time: 0-60 

 days, 121V72 nmi, 61-120 days, 134V446 nmi, 121-240 days, 097V 1,256 nmi. 



The greatest distance (2,100 nmi) recorded from the point of lagging was for a black martin recaptured nor- 

 theast of New Zealand, 235 days after tagging. Black martin tagged early in the north Queensland fishing season 

 (September) tended to migrate away from the area of tagging at a lower rate for the first 0-60 day period than black 

 martin tagged in October, November, or later in the fishing season. 



Tag recoveries were made near the tagging location 1, 2, and 4 years after tagging. Locations of recapture for 

 these black martin were calculated to be a vector mean distance of 58.3 nmi from the point of tagging. Longline high 

 catch rale areas for black martin indicate a monthly movement for the first 240 days of release time not unlike that 

 observed by tagging. In the summer the centers of high catch rate show a south to southeast movement off the east 

 coast of Australia from the tagging area, then a northward movement in the winter and spring to the New Guinea- 

 Bismark Archipelago-Solomon Islands area. The amount of interchange with the Indo-Pacific and areas to the north 

 is unclear, although emigration from the tagging area to north of New Guinea was recorded. 



INTRODUCTION 



Little is known about the migratory patterns for oceanic pelagic 

 species such as tunas and billfish in the Pacific Ocean. Only a few 

 species of tuna, such as yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares; 

 albacore, Thunnus alalunga; bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus; and 

 skipjack tuna, Euthynnus pelamis, have been tagged in sufficient 

 numbers, usually by commercial methods (trolling, live-bait, or 

 purse seining), to determine patterns and rates of migration. 

 Billfish have a high economic value to the commercial longline 

 fishery but are not caught at any one time in large numbers like 

 the tunas. Therefore, the opportunity to tag and release these 

 fishes is more limited. 



The concept of using anglers to tag and release billfish, tunas, 

 and other pelagic marine game species, was first developed by 

 Frank J. Mather III of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu- 

 tion, Woods Hole, Mass. (WHOI). The "Cooperative Marine 

 Game Fish Tagging Program" was first established by WHOI 

 with a grant from the National Science Foundation for studies in 

 the Atlantic Ocean. Since marine anglers frequently travel world- 

 wide to fish for billfish, some tags issued for studies in the Atlan- 

 tic were being used in the Pacific starting in 1954 to tag black 

 marlin, Makaira indica, blue marlin, Makaira nigricans, striped 

 marlin, Tetrapturus audax, sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus, 



Southwest Fisheries Center La Jolla Laboratory, National Marine Fisheries Ser- 

 vice, NOAA, La Jolla, CA 92038. 



; Cairns Game Fishing Club, Cairns, Queensland, 4870, Australia. 



shortbill spearfish, Tetrapturus angustirostris, and swordfish, 

 Xiphias gladius. In 1961, the senior author made a cooperative 

 agreement with Mather to support Pacific area tagging on behalf 

 of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Marine Game Fish 

 Research Center /Tiburon Marine Laboratory, Tiburon, Calif., 

 later to become a laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Ser- 

 vice (NMFS). The Service then assumed responsibility for the 

 Pacific program and has continued since that time to support the 

 tagging efforts of marine game fish anglers for billfish and other 

 pelagic game fish species. 



The tagging results discussed in this paper are for tags furnished 

 through 1978 by the NMFS and the WHOI. Beginning in 1976, 

 increasing numbers of black marlin have been tagged with tags 

 furnished by New South Wales State Fisheries, Sydney, Australia, 

 and this agency has now assumed the primary role in support of 

 the tagging program for black marlin off north Queensland, 

 Australia. These records are not included in the analysis portion 

 of this paper, with the exception that data for four recoveries 

 (6.3% of the tag recoveries reported upon) of New South Wales 

 State Fisheries (NSWF) tags have been used in the computation of 

 mean vector bearing and distances, sex ratios, and estimated 

 weight data. 



TAGGING AND RECOVERY 



The tagging data base of this study is that portion of the black 

 marlin catch tagged and released by anglers off the northeast 

 coast of Australia adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, between lat. 



