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This year’s White Marlin Open was nothing short of spectacular, with 318 boats vying for a staggering $8.59 million prize pool. Throngs of spectators packed the scales daily, while thousands more watched the dramatic weigh-ins unfold on social media. Amid the excitement of big wins and high-stakes competition, one thrilling story was almost overshadowed.
On Thursday, August 8, 2024, during Day Four of the tournament, angler Charlie Duerr aboard the Sea Hag boated a 67-pound white marlin which unfortunately came up short of any prize money. However, the team noticed a tag on the fish and promptly reported it to The Billfish Foundation (TBF). After running the tag information through their database, TBF discovered that this white marlin had embarked on an historic trans-Atlantic journey.
Originally tagged off Mohammedia, Morocco, by angler Laurent Sayhoun and Capt. Marco Canu on August 26, 2023, the fish had traveled more than 4,000 nautical miles before it was recaptured off Ocean City, Maryland, in just under a year. This extraordinary migration marks the first time in 34 years of TBF’s Tag & Release Program that a white marlin has completed such a remarkable voyage.
“A recapture of this nature is extremely rare. White marlin have been known to cross the Atlantic Ocean; however, it is incredible to have hard evidence of this migration,” said Peter Chaibongsai, TBF’s director of conservation programs. “A recapture like this provides information to TBF that is extremely hard to come by and goes to show how important it is to report all tags and releases. Additionally, this highlights the need for billfish revival and release.”
TBF’s Tag & Release Program was established in 1990 and now boasts an open-sourced billfish tagging database with more than 280,000 reports from billfish tagged around the world.
