BlueWater Boats & Sportsfishing – July 2019

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AUSTRALIAN TAGGING PROGRAM

BLACK MARLIN

RECAPTUREDINPNG

Sometimes the program receives

recaptures frommany years prior.Some

weeks ago we received tag recovery

forms from CarolineSanchez who works

for the Oceanic Fisheries Program of

the Secretariatof thePacific Community.

These forms had come from a remote

village in PapuaNewGuinea(PNG). One

of them was a black marlin released by

Debrah and SteveDahlaboardMooloolaba

GFC boat Bring it On in late December

2014. Their lure-caughtfishwasoriginally
      released off Caloundra in southern
      Queensland, estimatedto be20kg.
      The forms from PNG showed the black
      marlin had beenrecapturedin June 2016
      after 543 daysat liberty.It wascaughtby
      a PNG longlinevesselworkingin theouter
      Coral Sea, in anareaknownas thePapuan
      Plateau, which is south of Port Moresby.
      This meant the juvenile black marlin
      had travelled at least the straight-line
      distance of 955nauticalmilesfromwhere
      it was tagged.A deckhand onthe vessel
      estimated themarlintobearound100kg
      when recaptured,howevernolengthwas
      recorded.

SAMSONFISHRECAPTURE

A solid samsonfishreleased byFadyDib

aboard Storm Tamer on 29 June 2014

has been recapturedaftermorethanfive

years at liberty! Fady originally tagged

the samsonfishduringoneof histripsto

Greenly Islandin South Australia, when

it measured 116cmand14kgin weight.

On 23 April this year, Luke Donhardt

recaptured the fish in the Marion Bay

region of South Australia. After a quick

battle on 37kgtackle,Lukeandhisfather

Andrew measuredthefishat131cmand

25kg in weight.Lukecarefullycleanedthe

algae off thetagandre-releasedthefish

with the tag in place for another lucky

angler to potentiallyencounter.

On recapture, the samson was 116

nautical milesfromwhereit wasreleased

1852 days prior.This is thefifth-longest

time at libertyrecorded fora samsonfish

since the program’sinception.Thelongest

time at libertyrecorded fora samsonfish

is a shade overseven andhalf years,at

2752 days.

WA SAILFISHRECAPTURE

The ExmouthGameFishingClub’sannual

GAMEX tournamentis alwaysone ofthe

mostanticipatedeventsontheAustralian

game fishing calendar. With hot fishing

andover 55 boatsparticipating, chances

werebetterthannormal fora recapture

to happen.

A sailfish released during this year’s

tournamentbyVictorianGFCanglerScott

Reynolds aboard local Exmouth charter

vessel On Strike was recaptured within

the same tournament. Scott tagged the

sail on 26 March on the inshore marlin

grounds north of Tantabiddi. Capt Josh

Bruynzeel estimated it to be 30kg, with

a lower jaw fork length of 180cm. The

fish was recaptured just two days later.

Mark Jones recaptured the sailfishsouth

of Tantabiddi,towardsYardieCreek,while

fishing aboard Perth GFC boatVanquish.

Hethenre-taggedandreleasedit againin

excellentcondition.

Recaptures like this go some way to

show that getting caught and released

has little impact on the fish. For the

record, the fish was firstcaughtusing a

skipbait rigged with a circle hook, while

uponrecaptureit wascaughtusinga lure

intendedforsmallblackmarlin.Duringits

NEWSLINES

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two days at liberty, the fish had travelled a

straight-line distance of 30 nautical miles.

TOMAHAWK RACKING

THEM UP

Ulladulla GFC boat Tomahawk has been

racking up the releases this season,

tagging over 70 striped and black marlin

since last July. Gun husband and wife

team Tom and Chloe Laurence have

been putting in the miles on weekends,

regularly travelling from Sydney to the

south coast of NSW to chase the marlin

bite. Both were really excited when we

recently told them that one of their

tagged fish had been recaptured.

Fishing off Ulladulla on 24 March, the

duo tagged and released four striped

marlin during a hot session. One of them

was marked on the sounder, so Chloe

sent down a live slimy mackerel and

after a 10-minute tussle on 15kg tackle,

the beautifully coloured 75kg fish was

boatside with tag in place (as shown).

Her fish was recaptured 22 days later

by a commercial longline vessel fishing

beyond the continental shelf off Culburra,

A 20kg black marlin released

off southern Queensland in

December 2014 was recaptured

near Port Moresby in PNG and

estimated at 100kg after 543

days at liberty.