The great marlin race

[snuggles]

Just reading this website Great Marlin Race Home

Was interested to see a tagged 900lb black marlin in the current race 2011 from lizard island in Australia has travelled 2739 nm or 5073 km in just 86 days. Around 58-59 km a day if my calculator is right.

2011 Lizard Island Interactive Map

[snuggles]

2011 San Juan IBT

even further.... black 575lb, 120 days, travellled 4776 nm

"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. Dr. Randy Kochevar at Stanford University codirects the IGMR with IGFA and was stunned when he began reviewing the data. Benitez’s fish had traveled southeast some 4,776 nm"

2011 San Juan IBT Interactive Map

[dustin]

I have to admit, I'm fascinated by these studies. Every one of these pop-up tags has its own fascinating story. They don't always travel where we expect them to (indeed in many cases we don't really know what to expect) and I always wonder why they take the course that they do. Are they simply following food (and if so what kind) or is there some kind of definite purpose in their migration. Why did the five smaller fish stay in the western atlantic but the big one cross the ocean? I wish more of this info was available in the public domain as there have definitely been pop up tags deployed eg in Ghana for which no results seem to have been reported.

[snuggles]

track of the last one

http://guyharveysportswear.com/blog/...A-IGMR-MAP.jpg

[andreig]

I was the lucky one who caught the first marlin which was then tagged with sattelite tag during Lizard Island tournament in October 2011. The fish swam just something around 300 nm though. Anyway it is exciting experiment and the volume of the data scientists collect is great- this tag records position, brightness, depth and temperature of the water for every 30 seconds!
As to migration routes- for the marlins tagged during LIC 2011 the direction they swam is more less the same- south est. The speed is another matter.

Andrey

[snuggles]

Andrey, congratulations. It looks like the bigger marlin tagged seem to be heading in the same direction. It would be nice to see them tagged for longer so you could see where they get to but im sure the data collected would be excellent.

Dustin it is very good to see information like