Two Races Complete
The New Year is getting off to an exciting start, with the completion of two Great Marlin Race events.
Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament
The third annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament Great Marlin Race was won by “West Marie,” a 170-pound Pacific blue marlin caught by angler Ed Abele and tagged by Captain Marlin Parker on board his boat the Marlin Magic II. The electronic tag, sponsored through a West Marine BlueFuture Conservation Grant, was deployed on August 8, 2011 off the Big Island’s Kona Coast. The tag released from the marlin after 121 days, approximately 2,188 nautical miles from the tagging location, in a region north of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. Remarkably, this marlin swam south across the equator in less than 4 months.
This was one of two marlin tagged during the 2011 HIBT Great Marlin Race to travel to the Southern Hemisphere. The other, a 330-lb. fish tagged on behalf of Laguna Niguel Billfish Club on August 2, surfaced two days earlier after having traveled 1,752 miles from Kona – about 525 miles west-northwest of the winner, putting it in second place for the race. Of the 10 tags deployed as part of this event, 6 surfaced along a broad swath of ocean southeast of the Hawaiian Islands. Marlin tagged during the 2009 GMR behaved similarly, with 3 of the 10 tags deployed in that year ultimately showing up near the Marquesas. This is quite different, however, from the results in the 2010 Race – when all but one of the marlin traveled mostly east from Hawaii, and no tags reported from the Southern Hemisphere.
San Juan International Billfish Tournament
During the inaugural IGFA Great Marlin Race (IGMR) six satellite tags were deployed at the Club Nautico de San Juan’s 58th Annual International Billfish Tournament (IBT) that was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on September 5-11, 2011. Since that time anglers have waited patiently to see when and where the tags would pop up and start reporting information.
Five of the six tags popped up within 600 nautical miles of where they were tagged, scattered from the North Coast of Venezuela to a point 589 miles east-southeast of Puerto Rico. With five tags up, things were quiet and 2011 came to a close. At this point the only tag that had yet to report belonged to a sizeable 575 lb blue that was caught by Mike Benitez on the Sea Born and tagged by Eneau Agusta on September 7, 2011. Then it happened. On January 5, 2012 – exactly 120 days after it was deployed—Benitez’s fish’s tag popped off and began transmitting information. Benitez’s fish had traveled southeast some 4,776 nm from where it was tagged and crossed the equator to have its tag pop off near the coast of Angola, Africa.
Travelling more than eight times farther than any other fish, Benitez’s fish became the clear winner of the San Juan IBT race. Unfortunately, Mike Benitez never got to hear the news. A beloved captain in Puerto Rico and the first tournament recipient of the IGFA-Chester H. Wolfe Outstanding Sportsmanship Award, Mike passed away in Boston just two days before his tag reported; he was 79 years old.
Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic
In the first Great Marlin Race event "down under," five tags were deployed on black marlin between October 4-16. So far three of the five tags have reported, with the leading tag popping up on January 10 at a point 2,739 miles east of Lizard Island, near Phoenix Island in Kiribati. This remarkable fish, estimated to weight 900 pounds, was caught by angler Bill Borkan on board the Castille 111. The two remaining tags are programmed to report in early February, so keep checking back for updates.
