SEARCHING Oil 



By Jeannie Faris 



There's a fish tale behind the 

 prizewinning blue marlin mounted on 

 the wall at Motts Channel Seafood in 

 Wrightsville Beach. 



The 12-foot, battle-scarred billfish 

 had been a veteran fighter. When the 

 crew of Myrds Choice reeled it in 

 after a 45-minute struggle, the bill of 

 another marlin was found embedded 

 in its flank as evidence of recent 

 combat. Part of its own bill was 

 missing. 



But a footnote to this story is 

 equally compelling. 



This marlin was hooked with the 

 guidance of a satellite orbiting 5 miles 

 per second and 500 miles above the 

 ocean. The satellite had directed 

 Myrds Choice to a spot off Ocracoke 

 Inlet, where Spanish mackerel bait 

 lured the hungry 461 -pound catch to 

 one of six fishing hooks. 



FROM ITS PERCH HIGH IN SPACE. 

 THE SATELLITE LETS ANGLERS 

 ZERO IN ON AREAS WHERE 

 THE OIG TROPHY FISH 

 SPEND THEIR TIMES 



From its perch high in space, the 

 satellite lets anglers zero in on areas 

 where the big trophy fish spend their 

 time. It does this by collecting ocean- 

 surface temperatures, which are 

 charted to show the warm, offshore 

 waters associated with the Gulf 

 Stream. Fishermen can then consult 

 the charts to target a particular catch, 

 such as the blue marlin in 80-degree 

 water. 



This high-tech fishing aid is 



heralding an end to the days when 

 North Carolina anglers motored 

 around the ocean watching their 

 temperature gauges in search of the 

 Gulf Stream and its warm-water 

 eddies. 



Waning, too, are the days when 

 they had to watch for seawater color 

 changes and trains of floating weeds 

 to indicate possible feeding grounds. 



Myrds Choice first mate Monty 

 Martin says the blue marlin was 

 hooked in relatively shallow water 



— only about 120 feet deep — 

 where the crew might not otherwise 

 have put out bait without the aid of a 

 satellite chart purchased from a 

 Florida company. The billfish placed 

 third in the 1990 Big Rock Fishing 

 Tournament, the state's largest 

 contest. 



"If you don't use (the chart), 

 you're going out there blind," Martin 

 says. "You don't have any place to 

 start. And that's all it is, a place to 

 start." 



Sportfishermen like Martin 

 number about 1 million in North 

 Carolina, and they are the largest 

 recreational users of sea-surface 

 temperatures. They have the most to 

 gain financially from huge tourna- 

 ment purses. But if marketed, the 

 offshore images would probably 

 hold interest for the general public 



— weekenders at the beach, boaters, 

 surfers and armchair meteorologists, 

 says Jim Murray, director of Sea 

 Grant's Marine Advisory Service. 



Already, a worldwide network of 

 subscribers tap the ocean tempera- 

 ture readings from a pair of satellites 

 owned by the National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Administration 

 (NOAA), a federal agency. 



a NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 



