As 2009 draws to a close, I am glad to say that I count the Great Marlin Race, and our partnership with the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, to be among my favorite memories from the year. The generosity of the anglers and organizers of the HIBT allowed us to deploy ten satellite tags -- the most we had hoped for going into the tournament. Of the three tags that released early, two documented marlin migrations all the way to the Southern Hemisphere -- an amazing result, and one that would make our efforts worthwhile.
During this past week our mapping expert, Mike Castleton, was able to successfully create tracks for the two long-distance marlin - Fish 4, tagged by Bob Kurz; and Fish C, which was tagged by McGrew Rice during the week following the HIBT. You can see them in the map below, or play with them in more detail on our
interactive Google Earth map.And as we welcome in the New Year, we will rapidly arrive at the scheduled pop-off dates for the remaining seven tags - the first of which is due to come up on January 16. It will be fascinating to see if the remaining marlin followed similar paths after leaving Hawaii, and to see where they ventured from there.
As always, we'll be keeping our eyes out for new tags coming to the surface, and I'll do my best to keep you all up-to-date on the latest happenings. It promises to be an exciting few weeks ahead, and I can't wait to see how it all ends up!
We send you our warmest wishes for the Holidays, and bid you peace and joy in the New Year.
Sincerely,
Randy and the Block Lab Team
