The Great Marlin Race

On Wednesday morning, November 30, a fifth tag surfaced – exactly 120 days after it had been deployed. The Fish 7 tag was placed on a 330 pound marlin caught by Bob Kurz from McGrew Rice’s boat the Ihu Nui. The tag came up about 5 degrees south of the equator southeast of Hawaii, at a distance of 1,752 nautical miles from where it was deployed – putting it temporarily in first place.

Unfortunately for the Laguna Niguel Billfish Club Teams 1&2, who sponsored the Fish 7 tag, the lead was to be short-lived. Just two days later the Fish 8 tag, sponsored by West Marine and deployed from the Marlin Magic II, showed up a bit further south and east than the Fish 7 tag – at a total distance of 2,188 nautical miles southeast of its deployment point. That makes it our current race leader as we go into the final days of the race. The 170 pound marlin was caught by angler Ed Abele, and tagged by Captain Marlin Parker.

So as it now stands, six of the ten deployed tags have reported – leaving four to go. Three of those four remaining tags are now past their programmed release date – and the chances of hearing from them decrease with each passing day. The Fish 9 tag is the only one that has yet to reach its programmed pop-up date – which falls on December 10. Keep checking back to see how the race turns out!