2019 Conservation Record: Swordfish

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, 304 were of swordfish, including 13 swordfish recaptures. 17.3% of swordfish were released without tags, while 82.7% were tagged. To learn more about how to identify a swordfish, check out our youtube channel! A total of 224 swordfish were tagged

2019 Conservation Record: Striped Marlin

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, 2,536 were of striped marlin, including 6 striped marlin recaptures. 84% of striped marlin were released without tags, while 16% were tagged. To learn more about how to identify a striped marlin, check out our youtube channel! 413 striped marlin were tagged

2019 Conservation Record: Black Marlin

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, 502 were of black marlin, including one black marlin recapture. 66% of black marlin were released without tags, while 34% were tagged. To learn more about how to identify a black marlin, check out our youtube channel! A total of 172 black

2019 Conservation Record: Spearfish

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, less than 50 were of spearfish, and no spearfish were recaptured last year. Spearfish, in fact, are the most underrepresented billfish species in TBF’s entire dataset. As such, every tag, release, and recapture represents an incredibly significant piece of information, helping us

2019 Tag & Release Competition 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 grown to accrue over 260,000 tag and release records to become the largest private billfish tagging database in the world. In the last year alone, TBF has collected over 11,000 records! The information gathered through tag and release efforts is invaluable to increase our understanding and better our management of billfish and preserve the sport we love. This is only possible

Tropical Tuna Tagging Program Extended

The Billfish Foundation (TBF) is looking for anglers and crews interested in tagging tuna in the Northern Atlantic. TBF is working with scientists from the Atlantic Ocean Tropical Tuna Tagging Program (AOTTP) to learn more about certain tuna species. This program, which is part of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), looks to study key aspects of bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna life history and movements in the Atlantic Ocean. The AOTTP partners with scientists and commercial and recreational tuna fishermen to tag tropical tuna with AOTTP-specific conventional and/or electronic tags throughout the Atlantic

International Tag and Release Competition Reminder

Anglers, captains, and mates! The TBF International Tag and Release Competition will end on October 31st, 2019. All fish caught after that date will not count towards this year’s competition. All tag and release cards must be input into the database or received by the TBF office by November 15th, 2019 to count. Unfortunately, we cannot make any exceptions to this rule in order to ensure that everyone receives a fair shot at the title! These rulings apply for the international competition as well as all regional competitions. If you have any questions or concerns about the competition, receipt

International Tag and Release Competition Update

TAGGING CAPTAIN: RELEASE CAPTAIN: TAGGING ANGLER: RELEASE ANGLER: TAGGING LADY ANGLER: RELEASE LADY ANGLER: TAGGING YOUTH ANGLER: RELEASE YOUTH ANGLER: Blue Marlin Tagging Captain: Sailfish Tagging Captain: Swordfish Tagging Captain: White Marlin Tagging Captain: Blue Marlin Tagging Angler: Sailfish Tagging Angler: Swordfish Tagging Angler: White Marlin Tagging Angler: Blue Marlin Release Captain: Sailfish Release Captain: Swordfish Release Captain: White Marlin Release Captain: Blue Marlin Release Angler: Sailfish Release Angler: Swordfish Release Angler: White Marlin Release Angler: Black Marlin Tagging Captain: Blue Marlin Tagging Captain: Sailfish Tagging Captain: Striped Marlin Tagging Captain: Black Marlin Tagging Angler: Blue Marlin

International Tag & Release Competition Update

Blue Marlin Sailfish Swordfish White Marlin [av_hr class=’default’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ av-desktop-hide=” av-medium-hide=” av-small-hide=” av-mini-hide=” av_uid=’av-kzz42b’] Blue Marlin Sailfish White Marlin [av_hr class=’default’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ av-desktop-hide=” av-medium-hide=” av-small-hide=” av-mini-hide=” av_uid=’av-ish3nn’] Blue Marlin Sailfish Swordfish White Marlin [av_hr class=’default’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ av-desktop-hide=” av-medium-hide=” av-small-hide=” av-mini-hide=” av_uid=’av-hzpnf7′] Blue Marlin Sailfish White Marlin [av_hr class=’default’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ av-desktop-hide=” av-medium-hide=” av-small-hide=” av-mini-hide=” av_uid=’av-fheeo3′] Black Marlin Blue

Tagging Tuna with ICCAT and AOTTP

The Billfish Foundation is currently engaging in a research project with Atlantic Ocean Tropical Tuna Tagging Program (AOTTP) in order to further the knowledge around lifecycles of yellowfin, bigeye, and skipjack tuna. This will be accomplished by working with recreational and commercial anglers to implement traditional ‘spaghetti’ tags into these different species of tuna. This research is very valuable and important to the multiple regional and national fisheries associated with these different species. For example, this work will be very important with the yellowfin tuna fishery in the northern Gulf of Mexico. On a base level, this research will