What is the appropriate minimum length for blue marlin in tournaments to reap the highest benefit for all? The Billfish Foundation’s newest Winthrop P. Rockefeller Ocean Program intern, Nick Becker, a recent graduate from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, worked with blue marlin tournaments out of the Gulf of Mexico for his […]
Major victory for fish and the recreational community The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is not issuing an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) that would open the east coast Florida closed zone to pelagic longline vessels for the stated purpose of conducting “research.” Thanks in large part to TBF’s efforts and to our constituency submitting comments […]
Update for the 2nd quarter of 2018 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released their preliminary 2018 (January 1, 2018 through June 30, 2018) landings in numbers of fish for Atlantic blue and white marlin, roundscale spearfish, and western Atlantic sailfish. While many tournaments had not happened yet, we still believe that the recreational […]
Truly a living legend in big game fishing and one who will live on forever as a legend in our memories. Capt. Ron Hamlin died on August 12, 2018. Hamlin was recognized not only for his expertise at placing anglers from all over the world on billfish, but also for his contributions to billfish conservation. […]
Keeping Pacific Billfish Out of U.S. Continental Markets The amended Billfish Conservation Act (BCA) passed Congress and was signed into law this month, August 2018. The amended BCA prohibits Pacific billfish landed in Hawaii and in the U.S. Pacific Insular Areas (Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) from being imported into the […]
Weed, Weed – too much of a good thing? Offshore anglers know seeing and fishing a floating Sargassum weed line is a good thing for it they usually are very productive for catching dolphin fish and, if lucky, possibly a marlin. Sargassum is a brown-green microalga, or seaweed, which provides habitat for a significant variety […]
NOAA Fisheries will close the Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) Angling category fishery for large medium and giant “trophy” BFT (measuring 73” or greater) in the northern area effective 11:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, July 26, 2018, through December 31, 2018. The northern area is the area north of 39°18’N (off Great Egg Inlet, NJ). Note that the Angling category […]
Our annual Tag & Release competition is about 3/4 over and we will crown this year’s winners later this year at our Tag and Release Award Ceremony in February. We are highlighting the “Top Five” in many of the competition categories. This list constitutes the tag and release records processed by TBF as of […]
To keep you up to date and for your convenience, we have summarized some of the latest policies that effect billfish and our community. Federal Legislation to close a loophole in the Billfish Conservation Act (BCA), which ensures all billfish landed in Hawaii remain there and not be allowed into the continental U.S., continues to make […]
