Tagged black marlin swims 4700nm to Hawaii

There’s been an amazing recapture of a tagged black marlin that swam from Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast to 700nm east of Hawaii in just 244 days. This makes it the third longest distance travelled by a tagged black marlin under the NSW Game Fish Tagging Program.

The juvenile black marlin was estimated at just 25kg when it was released in mid-January 2017 and then 45kg when recaptured in mid-September 2017. It's almost as if the fish thought: too exhausting in Mooloolaba, I'm holidaying in Hawaii.

The athletic little black was tagged by the Mooloolaba Game Fishing Club boat, Luna, off the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, and recaptured 700nm east of Hawaii in the North Pacific Ocean by a commercial longline vessel.

NSW Fisheries said in its tagging news that the fish was part of a triple hook–up of two black marlin and a dolphin fish back in mid-January 2017.

The 25kg black marlin was originally tagged off a ground known as The Hards off the Sunshine Coast and travelled a massive straight line distance of 4700nm (8700km) during its 244 days at liberty.

In other words, the fish swam an average of 19nm (35km) per day. This marks the third longest distance travelled by a black marlin under the NSW Game Fish Tagging Program. The fish was estimated to be approximately 45kg on recapture.

The Luna boat crew of Captain Wayne Douglass, angler Steve Turner and crewmen Nathan Douglass and Shane O’Donnell are to be congratulated for tagging this fish and contributing to the pool of information on the movements of black marlin in the Pacific Ocean.

The record for the furthest distance travelled by a black marlin under the NSW DPI tagging program is for another juvenile fish tagged off Cairns and recaptured off Costa Rica in the year 2000. This fish travelled more than 7800nm.

This article was compiled with information from the NSW DPI Game Fishing Tagging Program.

Photo Credit: The marlin jumps boatside on Luna as caught by the action camera of Captain Wayne Douglass.