Amazing Fishing News: Marlin Travels 2225 Miles in 94 Days!

Tagged Marlin's Incredible Journey Wows Scientists and Fishermen
Text and Photos © Jon Schwartz http://www.bluewaterjon.com/

Sport fishing for marlin has changed in big ways over the past 50 years. In the old days, many anglers brought their catch back to the dock, simply to pose with it for a photo. These days, thankfully, most sporting anglers let their marlin go. Some take it a step further: they invite scientists to study the fish they release through advanced remote satellite technology. The studies are leading to some incredible findings- like this week’s discovery that one marlin caught in Hawaii traveled 2,225 nautical miles in only 94 days!

How do we know this? Marine biologists affiliated with Stanford University recently teamed up with anglers from the 50th annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT) that took place on the Big Island of Hawaii in July.

I covered the HIBT this year as a writer and photographer and witnessed some of the finest fishing the Kona Coast has seen in years. Over a 5-day period, tournament anglers caught 105 marlin, releasing 97. Eight of these 97 were outfitted with special satellite tags, and were thus entered into The Great Marlin Race.

When a marlin was brought to the boat, Stanford’s Dr. Randy Kochevar told me, “A surgical steel dart was inserted into fish. A mono leader comes out and wraps around a metal pin on the tag, and that pin is made of a corrosive metal. Then the fish is released. Exactly 180 days later, an electric current passes through the pin, which corrodes within minutes, weakened by a chemical reaction with the sea.” Then the bulbous tag pops off the fish, floats to the surface, and sends a signal to an orbiting satellite relaying its location, accurate to within 10 meters!

Although I spent all 5 days on the press boat and photographed multiple instances of anglers tagging fish, it wasn’t until I interviewed Kochevar over the phone that I realized I personally had witnessed these special sat tags being inserted. I scoured through my photos, and sure enough, found that I got some great pics of a marlin jumping at the transom of the Long Ranger,  which was then brought alongside the boat for a special tag! (see above photo)

Once I found that I had these shots, the whole process intrigued me that much more. By a great stroke of luck, these weren’t the only rare photos I got during the tournament. During the first ten minutes, I managed to get some great photos of a marlin jumping behind a boat as I hovered overhead in a helicopter!

Kochevar told me that the tag records data every 30 seconds for the 180-day period, including information on available light, depth, and temperature. This data tells him where the fish has been, how far it’s been diving, and how long it stays at these depths; exactly the type of information on marlin that is lacking in our current knowledge base.

Angling teams that purchased and sponsored the tags stay in touch with The Great Marlin Race scientists through their website, http://www.greatmarlinrace.org/ . Kochevar notifies the anglers when their tag pops up. Once all of the tags have surfaced, the one that has traveled the farthest distance from the point of insertion (in this case, the HIBT’s Kona Coast) wins the competition and a free entry into next year’s tournament.

Anyway, I was talking again with Kochevar this week, and he said, “Jon, you heard the incredible news, right?”
“Uh, no, Randy, but tell me!”
“A sat tag that we deployed on a marlin at the HIBT 94 days ago just popped up and started sending data to us via satellite. It traveled all the way down by the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, a distance of 2,225 nautical miles from where we tagged it!” My self-centered response was “Was it the one I got photos of?”

Kochevar laughed. “No Jon, I’m afraid it wasn’t!” He then proceeded to fill me in on the details, which will continue to unfold as the tag relays data to the team over the next ten-day period.  Below is a picture of the people who sponsored the sat tag, Sally and Bob Kurz, with Ph. D student George Shillinger (left) and  Dr. Kochevar ( right).

You can see the tag and the special poles it came with. Bob was the one who actually tagged the fish after it was caught by Tan Chin on board the Au'Kalani on Day 3 of the HIBT. Bob and Tan's efforts, and the incredible journey of their marlin, puts their Laguna Billfish Club in first place. Given that the other marlin still have 80 days to keep on trucking, I wonder if another tagged marlin will travel even farther?

Since Kochevar is the expert on the project, I’m going to pass the ball back over to him and encourage the curious to visit http://www.greatmarlinrace.org/.  He can answer detailed questions, and the site has lots more info on the Great Marlin Race. I’ll be checking in regularly to see all that the tag can tell us about the fish’s journey.

My big question is, why did it pop off early? Could the marlin have been eaten by a shark?

My second question is, am I the only person who wants to charter a plane to the Marquesas and see if we can’t locate the tag floating on the surface? I hear there’s a reward for recovering the device, and if the marlin was in such a hurry to get there, it must be pretty good fishing, too! I'm all up for going to the Marquesas in French Polynesia for my next adventure! Anyone else in?

I'm picturing that at some point the psat tag will wash ashore on a deserted island with one sole survivor and the poor soul will start screaming into it, expecting a rescue team to show up!

 -Jon Schwartz: Fishing Articles, Photography, & Travel: http://www.bluewaterjon.com/

My new article in Marlin Magazine: Fishing Nicaragua

I wrote a 2500 word travel destination feature for the October issue of Marlin Magazine called Nicaragua in High Style. It's about my trip to Nicaragua, one of the last great unexplored fishing frontiers in the Americas. You can view the whole article by clicking here for the pdf:
Fishing Nicaragua in High Style by Jon Schwartz, Marlin Magazine 

I fished aboard the famous 67 Viking owned by Carlos Pellas, IGFA rep and owner of Flor de Cana Rum Company, stayed at a luxury marina, covered a tournament in San Juan Del Sur, and finished up the trip at Captain Lance Moss' Surfari Fishing Charters Lodge.
The October issue also has some great articles on the benefits of tagging marlin, how to pick the correct rods, and fishing Kenya.

My New Article in Sport Fishing Mag: Panama's Tropic Star Lodge

I contribute to Sport Fishing Magazine, and they have a new article I wrote about fishing for monster black marlin at Panama's Tropic Star Lodge. Here it is: http://www.sportfishingmag.com/travel/destinations/tropic-stars-black-marlin--1000076333-page-1.html

They made an extensive gallery of my photos too, which you can view here: http://www.sportfishingmag.com/gallery/A-Few-Days-at-Tropic-Star-Lodge

That's the same epic location where I took the classic jumping shot of a black marlin that ended up on cover of Marlin Magazine's August issue. You can see that cover in a previous blog post and also in the gallery of my website.

I like the article and the extended gallery format because it showcases my writing and photography. As you know, in the print articles, they can only show a limited amount of photos, but these online galleries provide a forum for showcasing the diverse types of photography that I do- action, portrait, wildlife, scenic, and architectural shots.

September cover of Pacific Coast Sportfishing

I took the above cover shot in Kona, Hawaii during the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament(HIBT). I had planned to stay there for two weeks, but the fishing just kept getting better so I extended my stay again, and again, and again! The full feature on the HIBT that I wrote will come out in next month's issue of Pacific Coast Sportfishing. I write a monthly column in there and also do travel destination articles for them, such as the one here I wrote about Guatemala's Casa Vieja Lodge http://www.bluewaterjon.com/article/article11.html

In any case, the action for blue marlin in Kona was so hot it was ridiculous! I was out on the water with different boats for about 20 of the 30 days I was there. Most days, we scored multiple blue marlin. I was able to accompany some well known Kona captains there and interview them for future articles, including Marlin Parker, Gene Vanderhoek, and Guy Terwilliger.

I also managed to score a bunch of super rare high quality underwater shots of spearfish, the rarest billfish in the world. The images led to another article that will appear in the future in Marlin Magazine. After that I hopped on the Kila Kila, captained by Teddy Hoogs, and we went out night fishing for big albacore and yellowfun tuna. "Albies" get over 70 pounds there. We got some great content that will appear in a night fishing feature I'm writing for Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing Magazine.

Right now I am really excited to pick up the new Marlin Mag issue. It should have a feature I wrote about fishing in Nicaragua (see below posts).

My shot made the cover of Marlin Magazine!!

A shot I took is on the cover of Marlin Magazine. It's a photo of a black marlin that I took in Panama at the world famous Tropic Star Lodge. YAHOO!

Actually I am getting lucky with a lot of covers recently. If you want to see all of them, and also peek at some of my recent shots from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Cabo, and Kona, check out my gallery here: http://www.bluewaterjon.com/gallerybyjon.htm

If you see something you like, and you'd like to order original prints, please contact me through my website. I am also doing private shoots now for resorts, yacht owners, and anglers.

New article about my trip to Costa Rica's Crocodile Bay Lodge

This winter I had the pleasure of visiting Costa Rica's famous Crocodile Bay Lodge. It's really an incredible resort, and home to some of the world's best fishing and ecotourism. I wrote a 2500 word article about my visit there in the latest issue of Destination Fish Magazine and you can read it here:  Fishing in Costa Rica for Exotics: Crocodile Bay Lodge by Jon Schwartz It's the only place I know of where you can pull on sailfish, marlin, roosterfish, and dorado in the morning and get face time with exotic rainforest animals in the afternoon. I hope to bring my wife and kids there someday.

Another cover shot! Aug '09 Pacific Coast Sportfishing

This is a recently published shot that I took this winter when I was in Guatemala visiting the awesome Casa Vieja Lodge http://www.casaviejalodge.com/. If you want to read about my stay there- and the incredible sailfish action (up to 30 big sailfish pef day!) click this link: http://www.bluewaterjon.com/article/article11.html
Anyway here's the cover shot:

I am staying up late packing for Kona- going to cover the 50th Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament(HIBT) for PCSF. This will be super exciting; I'll be on the press boat every day snapping away, trying to get some great images of huge marlin jumping in Kona, a place known as "The Land of the Giants". It's suitable nickname; there have been many thousand pounders caught there, some within a mile of the shore!

Here is the link to the tournament: http://www.hibtfishing.com/After the HIBT is over I will be doing a story on bottom fishing with Capt. Jeff Rogers http://fishinkona.com/ for Florida Sport Fishing Magazine. He's the undisputed king of bottom fishing in Kona, and seeing how it's one of the world's best places to do it, I'd say he's about one of the best in the world at this type of fishing. He's really a master and I can't wait to see what he and his clients raise and release from the deep! Monday morning I am going to be put on a helicopter by the Big Island Visitor's Bureau of Hawaii to get some shots of the opening of the tournament. That should be cool! Then they'll get me back on the ground so I can board the press boat with Tim Simpson of Australia's Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing Magazine. Stoked!!!