Recapture on Japanese Longliner!
On August 9th, 2022, Katsue Koyano caught a blue marlin aboard Motohiko Goto’s boat, Gotch, in the waters of Hyoutan, Japan. The marlin was relatively small, with an estimated weight of 120 pounds. Just over a year later, in August of 2023, the blue marlin was recaptured in the waters of Micronesia. It was caught on a commercial longline and harvested. However, an observer of the Japanese longline fleet involved in the recapture was able to recover the tag and send the record to TBF. Even though this fish was commercially harvested, we applaud all submitted records of recaptures, whether the fish is re-released or harvested.
The reason that commercial observers are important is represented in an instance like this. Without the observer reporting the recapture, we never would have known that the blue marlin traveled an estimated (straight line) distance of 2,032 nautical miles (3,764 km) in just over a year. This piece of recapture data is fantastic for furthering our understanding of blue marlin migration patterns.
