Nautilus Marine Tags Monster Marlin

Nautilus Marine Insurance has sponsored the Great Marlin Race, a prominent event dedicated to billfish research and conservation. Scientists and Pacific Blue Marlin both benefit from the Great Marlin Race made possible with the support of sponsors like Nautilus Marine.

Pacific Blue Marlin, one of the most magnificent billfish to swim the open ocean, have begun giving up some of their mysterious secrets to researchers. Thanks to this "catch and release" tournament, new data has begun to surface about the migratory journey of marlin.

In its most simple form, the Great Marlin Race involves a tag and release tournament among sponsors. However, the underlying focus surrounds the gathering of vital research data on marlin.

Game fishermen from around the world descended on Kona, Hawaii for the Great Marlin Race. This year Nautilus Marine sponsored the race that was created to help commemorate the 50th Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT).

Avid angler, Ian Frith, Chairman of Nautilus Marine, on board The Northern Lights caught an 800 pound Pacific Blue Marlin, the biggest ever tagging in the history of the Great Marlin Race.

Although Nautilus Marine tagged Marlin was by far the biggest fish tagged and released in the competition, the winner of the Great Marlin Race has not yet been decided.

With the use of electronic tags to follow the movements of the Marlin, the winner is determined after 120 days when the tags pop off the marlin and float to the surface, transmitting data back to the laboratory. The tags will record where the various tagged marlin have travelled, how deep they dive and what water temperatures they encounter. The winner of the Great Marlin Race will be awarded to the Marlin that has travelled the furthest.

"At Nautilus Marine we get quite excited about these kind of events as they really give something back to the conservation and research communities. It is a wonderful association for everyone in the business to be involved with as we are all genuinely interested in preserving our future," said Mr Frith.

"We at Nautilus Marine believe it is an aspect of our social responsibility to support this kind of event so that future generations can also enjoy the sport of game fishing."

From the nine tags deployed in 2010, the tags demonstrated a broad range of migratory paths with the winning Marlin travelling 2,282 nautical miles. Some tags were found across the equatorial region, which is very unusual for animals to migrate across, due to the combination of high-temperature surface water and oxygen-poor water below.

The Great Marlin Race is part of the longer-term tagging program Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators (GTOPP), a multi-disciplinary research initiative to study the migratory behaviour of different kinds or sea animals.