Announcing TBF’s 2023 Tag & Release Awards Winners!

Interested in attending TBF’s International Tag & Release Awards Ceremony? Here’s everything you need to know! A special thanks to our ceremony sponsors, King Sailfish Mounts and Costa Sunglasses, who together with Boaters List, Casa Vieja Lodge, Garmin Marine, IGFTO, and Yeti Coolers have made this night possible. Click here to get your tickets! If […]

Tag & Release Competition Deadline Approaching

Fast approaching, the deadline for The Billfish Foundation’s 2022-2023 Annual Tag & Release Competition is October 31st, 2023. All records must be received by TBF by the end of the day on November 15th, 2023. Do not miss your chance to submit your cards before the deadline! At this point, we would highly recommend submitting […]

Deadline to Submit For TBF’s Tag and Release Competition is coming up!

The deadline for The Billfish Foundation’s 2021-2022 Annual Tag & Release Competition was October 31st, 2022. All records must be received by TBF by the end of the day on November 15th, 2022. There are two ways to submit your cards. (1)  Online: Go to www.tagbillfish.org, login into your profile, and submit your tags online. Online submission is the quickest and most efficient way to ensure your tag and releases will be received by the deadline. Be sure to keep a hard copy (like a photo) of the record. (2)  Mail: Drop your completed tag or release cards

TBF’s New Tag and Release Web Application is Live!

TBF is excited to announce the release of its new tag and release web application. Complete with a more user-friendly interface, personalized fishing history, and a revamped mobile phone application, TBF’s new site now makes the process of submitting tag and release information easier than ever. What Will You Need To Do To Start To successfully transition to this new platform, if you were a past/current user you will need to reset your current login credentials. If you are a new user, please register here. For those who may be unfamiliar with this process, we’ve created multiple video tutorials

May 2022 Tag & Release Competition Update

Can you believe we are already halfway through our annual competition?!?! Listed below are current standings for top captains and anglers in each category for The Billfish Foundation’s Tag & Release Competition. These standings are only reflective of the data processed as of May 1st, 2022. If a category is missing, it’s because there haven’t been enough fish to qualify as of yet. The competition will continue to run through October 31, 2022, and TBF will accept all entries up until November 15, 2022. Please note that anyone can participate for free but you are only eligible to receive

Announcing the 2021 Tag & Release Award Winners

Each year The Billfish Foundation recognizes the best of the best in the billfishing community to acknowledge the significant effort they contribute to our Tag & Release Program and billfish conservation. Since its inception in 1990, the program has accrued over 270,000 tag and release records, becoming the largest private billfish tagging database in the world. In the last year alone, TBF has collected over 7,500 records! The information gathered through tag and release efforts are invaluable to increase our understanding and better our management of billfish and preserve the sport we love. This is only possible through the efforts

2020 Conservation Record: Sailfish

The Billfish Foundation maintains the largest private tag and release database in the world, with 260,000 records by 150,000 anglers. In 2020 alone, TBF anglers and captains tagged, released, or recaptured 7,000 billfish and tuna across the world. Of these 7,000 new records, 2,908 were of sailfish. Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus/albicans) are native to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Istiophorus albicans refers to the Atlantic sailfish, while Istiophorus platypterus refers to the Indo-Pacific sailfish. However, many use Istiophorus platypterus for both, as there is little difference between the two aside from size and location. Here, The Billfish Foundation also

Tag & Release Competition Update

Listed below are the top 5 captains and anglers in each category for The Billfish Foundation’s Tag & Release Competition as of April 28, 2021. If a category is missing, it’s because there haven’t been enough fish to qualify. The competition runs through October 31, 2021 and all entries must be in by November 15. Please remember that you are only eligible to receive an award if you are an active member of The Billfish Foundation. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. To purchase tagging equipment and other TBF items, visit our online shop

Sailfish Conservation Record 2019

The Billfish Foundation maintains the largest private tag and release database in the world, with over 260,000 records. In 2019 alone, over 11,000 new tag, release, and recapture records were added to this database, representing an enormous amount of data to help us learn more about billfish life history. Of these over 11,000 new records in 2019, 5,280 were of sailfish, including an incredible 34 sailfish recaptures. 73.6% of sailfish were released without tags, while 26.4% were tagged. To learn more about how to identify a sailfish, check out our youtube channel! An incredible 1,385 sailfish were tagged