On Monday, August 5, 2013, 38 angling teams from around the world gathered just off the Kona Coast for the 54th Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT). This year s HIBT also marked the fifth year of the Great Marlin Race, which was born there as part of HIBT'S 50th Anniversary celebrations. Now managed by a unique collaboration between Stanford University and the International Game Fish Association, the IGFA Great Marlin Race (IGMR) has grown into a program spanning the globe! A total of eight minipat satellite tags were sponsored for the 2013 Kona, USA IGMR. The first tag of the 2013 Kona, USA IGMR (Fish 1) was sponsored by Keith and Janice Allan of Whangaroa Sport Fishing Club. The tag was deployed during the first day of the tournament by Ihu Nui captain, McGrew Rice on a large, 91 kg (200 lb) blue marlin caught by Janice Allan. Four days later, on Friday afternoon, August 9, 2013, the second tag (Fish 2) was deployed by sponsor Marty Firestein of Balboa Angling Club on a very large, 113 kg (250 lb) blue marlin caught by his son, Mitchell Firestein, aboard Hooked Up. Marty stated on the data sheet that the fish swam away nicely! The third satellite tag (Fish 3) was deployed about one week after the close of the tournament, on the morning of August 20, 2013, by Marlin Magic II captain Marlin Parker. Angler Max Patterson reeled in the fish after a 35 minute bout with the blue that was estimated to weigh about 318 kg (700 lb) - the second largest Pacific blue marlin successfully tagged in the five year history of the HIBT Great Marlin Race! The sponsor, Ralph Czabayski of Game Fishing Club of South Australia, stated that he was happy it was tagged by Marlin Parker and even happier that it was a 700 lb blue. Ralph was the winner of last year s race, the 2012 Kona, USA IGMR, for a blue marlin that traveled 1,743 nautical miles in 87 days. To date, this distance is also the sixth longest track recorded in the history of the IGMR!
The fourth satellite tag (Fish 4) was generously co-sponsored by Hidemi Hayashi, Tuero Koshikawa, Yashuhiko Kagabu, Masaharu Matsushita, and Katsuhiko Wakabayashi of Hilton Grand Vacations Fishing Club Ohana, Kona Game Fishing Club Kusatsu, Olympian Dream Fishing Club, Kona Game Fishing Club Taiyo, and Japan Game Fish Association. At the end of the month on August 31, 2013, Northern Lights captain, Kevin Nakamaru placed the tag on a 50 kg (110 lb) blue marlin which put up a 10-minute fight with angler Jay Temple. IGFA representatives Rocky Franich and Bob and Sally Kurz of Pajaro Valley Gamefish Club and Laguna Niguel Billfish Club Team #1 sponsored the fifth satellite tag (Fish 5), deployed on September 5, 2013 by Jody Bright on a 57 kg (125 lb) blue marlin. The fish was caught after a 15 minute fight with angler Kenneth Lahey aboard Humdinger. The following week, on September 13, 2013, Ihui Nui captain McGrew Rice placed a second tag, the sixth satellite tag of the race (Fish 6), on a massive 145 kg (320 lb) blue after an hour long fight with angler Janet B. Martic. Janet noted on the data sheet that the fish swam away strongly. The tag was generously co-sponsored by Bob & Sally Kurz, Bob Dudley, Robert Chavers, Chuck Salinger, and Allen McGee, of Laguna Niguel Billfish Club #1 and Laguna Niguel Billfish Club #2. Three days later, early in the morning on September 16, 2013, Marlin Magic II captain Marlin Parker tagged another large fish - an 82 kg (180 lb) blue marlin reeled in by Mike Allison after a 15 minute bout. The seventh satellite tag (Fish 7) was generously sponsored by Bob O Dea and Bob Howden of Lae Game Fishing Club. The eighth satellite tag, sponsored by Tim McBride of Mission Bay Marlin Club was not deployed and will be part of the 2014 Kona, USA IGMR. Kona, USA 2013 Deployments TAG Deployment Period (days) Boat Fish Tagged Reported Days at Large Distance (nm) Est. Wt. (lbs) Est. Wt. (kg) Angler Tagger 11P0710 180 Ihu Nui 1 8/5/2013 200 91 11P0711 180 Hooked Up 2 8/9/2013 2/5/2014 180 2883 250 113 Janice Allan Mitchell Firestein McGrew Rice Marty Firestein 11P0717 180 Marlin Magic II 3 8/20/2013 12/12/2013 114 1153 700 318 Max Patterson Marlin Parker 11P0719 180 Northern Lights 4 8/31/2013 110 50 Jay Temple Kevin Nakamaru 11P0720 180 Humdinger 5 9/5/2013 2/27/2014 175 2101 125 57 Kenneth Lahey Jody Bright
11P0716 180 Ihu Nui 6 9/13/2013 3/12/2014 180 74 320 145 Janet B. Martic McGrew Rice 11P0715 180 Marlin Magic II 7 9/16/2013 3/16/2014 181 132 180 82 Mike Allison Marlin Parker Of the seven tags deployed during the 2013 Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, five tags reported (Tags 11P0711, 11P0717, 11P0720, 11P0716, and 11P0715). Three tags reached the full 180-day programmed deployment period (Tags 11P0711, 11P0716, and 11P0715), one tag surfaced only five days ahead of schedule (Tag 11P0720), and one tag reported after 114 days (Tag 11P0717), but still provided a very rich dataset. The improved tag retention demonstrated in this race may be an exciting result of Wildlife Computers smaller (and thus lower drag) minipat tags compared to the MK10 tags used in previous race years. The tag on Fish 3 (Tag 11P0717) was the first to surface, just east of Hawaii, on December 12, 2013. The fish swam a point to point distance of 1,153 nautical miles (nm) in 114 days and earned third place in the race. On February 5, 2014, Fish 2 s tag (Tag 11P0711) popped up 22 south of the equator, almost near Pitcairn Island and revealed that Fish 2 swam a remarkable, 2,883 nm! This is the second longest distance recorded in IGMR history and the official winner of the Kona, USA 2013 IGMR. Three weeks later, on February 27, 2013, the tag on Fish 5 (Tag 11P0720) surfaced 2,101nm south of where it was deployed and earned second place in the race. On March 12, 2014, Fish 6 s tag (Tag 11P0716) took fifth place by reporting a point to point distance of 74 nm and four days later, on March 16, 2014, the tag on Fish 7 (Tag 11P0715) was the last to surface 132 nm away from the Kona Coast, and earned fourth place in the race. Of the seven tags that were deployed, two did not report: The Fish 1 tag (11P0710) and the Fish 4 tag (11P0719). While our hope and expectation is to get data from every tag we put out, the reality is that the ocean is a challenging environment for technology, and things sometimes go wrong. Failure of a tag to report can arise from mortality of the tagged animal and subsequent crushing of the tag (from pressure below 2,000 m) before it can automatically release; extensive biofouling of the antenna, which prevents transmission when the tag surfaces; or internal tag malfunction. Over the past five years, more than 80% of the deployed tags have reported successfully which is remarkably high; and the
results at the IGFA Great Marlin Race have been even better, at a success rate of 86%. Map of the final results for the 2013 Kona, USA IGFA Great Marlin Race. This race was won by Fish 2 (11P0711, in yellow), which reported 2,883 nm from where it was deployed. Second place went to Fish 5 (11P0720, in orange), which covered 2,101 nm; Fish 3 (11P0717, in green) finished third, at 1,153 nm; Fish 7 (11P0715, in purple) circled back to the islands, yielding a fourth-place finish at 132 nm; and Fish 6 (11P0716 in blue) brought up the rear at 74 nm. Fish 2 (Tag 11P0711) and Fish 5 (Tag 11P0720) both exhibited southward migrations similar to what we have observed from other billfish tagged off the coast of Kona, Hawaii. Since 2009, a total of nine tags placed on Pacific blue marlin reported from the southern hemisphere, several of which surfaced in the vicinity of French Polynesia. It is noteworthy that Fish 2 (Tag 11P0711) traveled significantly further south than any fish we have ever tagged in the IGMR., Also, Fish 2 swam south at a rate of 125 miles per day for approximately 20 days, which emphasizes the remarkable capacity these animals have to cover vast distances quickly. Fish 3 (Tag 11P0717) exhibited a very different behavior and traveled east immediately after deployment. In 2010, we observed two very similar east-bound tracks, both of which reported from the same general region in which this tag popped up. It will be interesting to compare the ocean conditions from these time periods to see if they were similar. It may also
be worth noting that this region east of Hawaii, where all three marlin appear to have lingered for at least some period of time, is known to be frequented by other apex marine predators, including white sharks, for reasons we don t yet understand. The behaviors of Fish 6 (Tag 11P0716) and Fish 7 (Tag 11P0715) were interesting in that they reported from very close to Hawaii after six months, which raised the possibility that they remained resident there. However, after closer inspection of their individual tracks, it appears that both marlin initially headed south after they were tagged. While Fish 6 (11P0716) lingered in a relatively restricted area about 150 miles south of Hawaii, Fish 7 (11P0715) traveled more broadly south-southwest of the Big Island. Both marlin turned north around the end of December, 2013, but Fish 6 (Tag 11P0716) swam about 250 miles north of Kona before turning back south, while Fish 7 (Tag 11P0715) gradually circled back towards the Big Island before it popped up. So although both tags reported from relatively near their deployment points, both marlin traveled hundreds of miles over the deployment period while remaining in the vicinity of the main Hawaiian Islands. The data from the 2013 Kona, USA IGMR were added to the growing dataset we have amassed from this event over the past five years. To date, with the generous support of the tournament organizers, anglers, captains and crews at the HIBT, we have deployed 46 satellite tags and recorded 3,118 days of tracking data. We are particularly excited with the performance of the new minipat tags, which remained attached to the fish for much longer than the previously usedmk10 tags and produced significantly more data. We have adjusted our programming templates accordingly to maximize the information we obtain from each of the tags and look forward to being able to track the movements and diving behavior of marlin with greater precision than ever before. Our ongoing analysis of this incredible repository of information is beginning to shed light on the broader patterns of blue marlin migrations and diving behavior in the Pacific, as well as the environmental factors that shape them. We observed some of the deepest dives on record during this race, with marlin diving to depths in excess of 700 m (>2310 feet). Interestingly, most of the deepest dives occurred in marlin (Fish 2 and Fish 5) that traveled south to the vicinity of French Polynesia. These marlin appeared to dive particularly deep when in that area, often diving to depths exceeding 600 m. We will be sharing these and other insights with everyone at the upcoming HIBT event in July, 2014, as we prepare to submit these findings for publication this year. Thanks very much to everyone for your ongoing support. It is because of your efforts that we are better understanding marlin biology in the Pacific Ocean basin.
Tag 11P0711 Fish 2 Tag number: 11P0711 Sponsor: Marty and Mitchell Firestein Angler: Mitchell Firestein Tagger: Marty Firestein Boat: Hooked Up Species: Blue marlin Estimated weight: 113 kg Deployed: 8/9/2013 Reported: 2/5/2014 Days at large: 180 Distance traveled: 2,883 nm Maximum depth: 616 m Minimum temp: 6.4 C Maximum temp: 29.2 C
Tag 11P0717 Fish 3 Tag number: 11P0717 Sponsor: Ralph Czabayski Angler: Max Patterson Tagger: Marlin Parker Boat: Marlin Magic II Species: Blue marlin Estimated weight: 318 kg Deployed: 8/20/2013 Reported: 12/12/2013 Days at large: 114 Distance traveled: 1,153 nm Maximum depth: 672 m Minimum temp: 5.4 C Maximum temp: 27.6 C
Tag 11P0720 Fish 5 Tag number: 11P0720 Sponsor: Rocky Franich, Bob & Sally Kurz Angler: Kenneth Lahey Tagger: Jody Bright Boat: Humdinger Species: Blue marlin Estimated weight: 57 kg Deployed: 9/5/2013 Reported: 2/27/2014 Days at large: 175 Distance traveled: 2,101 nm Maximum depth: 712 m Minimum temp: 5.8 C Maximum temp: 30.0 C
Tag 11P0716 Fish 6 Tag number: 11P0716 Sponsor: Bob & Sally Kurz, Bob Dudley, Robert Chavers, Chuck Salinger, Allen McGee Angler: Janet B. Martic Tagger: McGrew Rice Boat: Ihu Nui Species: Blue marlin Estimated weight: 145 kg Deployed: 9/13/2013 Reported: 3/12/2014 Days at large: 180 Distance traveled: 74 nm Maximum depth: 520 m Minimum temp: 6.4 C Maximum temp: 28.0 C
Tag 11P0715 Fish 7 Tag number: 11P0715 Sponsor: Bob O'Dea, Bob Howden Angler: Mike Allison Tagger: Marlin Parker Boat: Marlin Magic II Species: Blue marlin Estimated weight: 82 kg Deployed: 9/16/2013 Reported: 3/16/2014 Days at large: 181 Distance traveled: 132 nm Maximum depth: 472 m Minimum temp: 8.0 C Maximum temp: 28.6 C