A striped marlin tagged and released by Ulladulla Sport and Gamefishing Club member George Lirantzis on the boat Side Effect on March 23, 2014 was recently reported as recaptured by Darren Buttigieg of Greenvale Sport and Gamefishing Club.
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Darren hooked the tagged marlin on January 28 while fishing off Eden on the Far South Coast NSW onboard Back ‘n Up.
The marlin was at liberty for 314 days before it was recaptured, re-tagged and released.
From the recapture location, it shows that the fish had travelled a straight-line distance of approximately 107 nautical miles in a southwesterly direction.
It is most likely, however, that this marlin had headed north with the receding East Australian Current during the late autumn/winter months of 2014.
It may have headed all the way towards the known striped marlin spawning grounds situated over the Norfolk Ridge – the undersea mountain ridge between New Zealand and New Caledonia, before moving back south with the warm currents to feed on the plentiful bait fish along the NSW continental shelf.
For more information on the NSW DPI Game Fish Tagging Program:
From the NSW DPI Facebook page