Halfway through the Race, and half the tags are up!

The past several weeks have been really amazing here at our lab.  As many of you know, for the past 10 years we have been leading the "Tagging of Pacific Predators" (TOPP) program, which is one of the field programs of the global Census of Marine Life.  Over the past decade the TOPP team has put out more than 4,300 tags on 23 different species of open ocean animals, including whales, sharks, tunas, seabirds, seals, sea lions, turtles and even squid.  We've amassed more than 335,000 days of tracking data - and in the end, we've learned a lot about how the open ocean ecosystem works.  The Great Marlin Race is one of several "TOPP Partner" programs, which have contributed even more data, from a wider variety of species, to the TOPP effort.

Last week in London we celebrated "A Decade of Discovery" in London, with the public roll-out of all the Census findings.  If  you've watched the news at all, you probably saw something about this.  It was really an amazing event, and it has really been an honor to be part of such a monumental scientific achievement.

In case you didn't see the website, we did have a couple more tags pop up since my last update.  We had one tag report from about 775 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii, in the same general vicinity of the two tags that preceded it; and then we had another one show up 1363 nm away - much further east than the other tags we've seen so far.

So we're now roughly halfway through the race, and we've heard from 5 of the 10 tags we deployed.  We're starting to see some interesting tracks from the first three tags, which I'll be sharing with you soon.  And as always, I'll be checking for more tags to come up!

Best wishes,

Randy

Another one?!

It's always a surprise when a new tag comes up  - and the third tag of the race was no exception.  I think the biggest surprise was that it was still so close to Kona.  With all the other marlin we've tagged thus far, by the time they had been at liberty for a month they were at least 500 miles or away.

I want to extend my thanks to the Fish 10 co-sponsors - the Hilton Grand Vacations Club of Japan and the Pajaro Valley Gamefish Club #1.  I'm sorry you didn't win the race, but we sure appreciate your support!

If there is any consolation to be had, I suppose it is that this tag went further than the one the Pajaro Valley guys sponsored last year - which made it only 62 miles, and stayed on for just 8 days.  We're going in the right direction - and 2011 might just be your year!

Two tags are up and the word is out!

It's hard to believe that it's already the middle of September!  Summer is over, kids are back in school, and I'm wishing I were back in Kona!

Fortunately, there are lots of exciting things to share.  First and foremost, we had two tags pop up late last week - both southeast of Hawaii, and in the same region as last year around the same time - 500 and 691 nautical miles from Kona.  As soon as the tags finish sending us their data, and the satellite sea surface temperature readings are all in, we'll be posting tracks for these two tags.  In the mean time, of course, we'll be keeping our eyes open for more tags popping up, and will keep everyone posted.

We've also had some excellent press coverage - with a fantastic article in IGFA's International Angler, as well as Pacific Coast Sportfishing.  And just today the Stanford News Service put together a fantastic piece about the Great Marlin Race - which will likely generate additional press coverage in other places.  Check back on the Media Coverage page to see what other news we've made.

I am also really excited to announce that the Great Marlin Race has just received a Marine Conservation Grant from our friends at West Marine!  They have a long-standing commitment to marine research and conservation, and we are really excited to be working with them to help this program continue to develop and grow.

There are lots of other things in the works - I'll be posting more news here as the details emerge!

Best wishes!

WHEW! All the tags are out!!!

I just hung up the phone with Bob Kurz, the HIBT event coordinator for the Great Marlin Race.  He let me know that the final tags went out yesterday, just ten days after the tournament ended.  There are now ten tags in the water, and the Great Marlin Race is really under way!

Just to make sure it is clear - each tag is programmed to come up after 120 days at sea, and that clock doesn't start ticking until the tag is actually put on a marlin.  Because the Race is based on which fish travels the furthest from Kona, all ten fish have and equal shot at winning - regardless of whether they were tagged first or last.

For the next few months we'll be checking our systems daily to see if any tags have come up - for as we saw in the 2009 Great Marlin Race, sometimes tags pop up ahead of schedule.  As tags report in and their data are recovered, we'll be updating the site and sending out reports to keep everyone informed of our progress.  Once we've passed the date when the final tags are due up, and there is no possibility of additional tags reporting in (around the end of the year), we'll announce the final results of the Race.

Once again I want to send out a huge thank you to all the sponsors, the anglers and teams, captains and crews and HIBT staff and volunteers who helped make the 2010 Great Marlin Race possible.  This year's race is off to a fantastic start thanks to all of you!

The tournament is over, but the Race is just getting under way

"Stop fishing" call came at 4:30 this afternoon, after a tough week of fishing.  Although several large female blue marlin were caught, anglers were having a tough time finding the large numbers of smaller males that we've seen in years past.  Because these smaller fish (i.e., under 300 lbs.) are quickly tagged and released, they are ideal candidates for the Great Marlin Race.  But even with tags spread out among seven different boats for the past two days, we haven't had any luck getting more tags out.

The good news is that those tags that have already been sponsored will be deployed as quickly as possible in the days ahead, and all of them will remain in the race.  Because the race is about the distance traveled, and all tags are programmed to stay on for the same length of time, everyone still has an equal shot at winning.

Although the fishing was a bit slower this year than last, it was really rewarding to see how much interest has grown in the Great Marlin Race over the past year.  We saw anglers, boat captains and crew members sporting GMR tee shirts and caps, and we had a great turnout for Science Night where George Shillinger and I presented the results from the 2009 Race.  We had several teams sponsor tags for a second time this year, and several other new teams and sponsors get in the Race for the first time.

We are grateful to everyone for their generous support.  HIBT Founder and Director Peter Fithian and all the HIBT staff and volunteers have done an amazing job to make this an incredible event in its 51st year.  The captains and boat crews were generous and accommodating to George and I - who don't tend to travel light between tags, poles, cameras, books, papers and laptops.  And finally the anglers, who are willing to allocate precious time, space and attention to our project in the middle of a major tournament.  You all have our deepest thanks for your patience and support.

This entry wouldn't be complete without a very special thanks to our friends Uki and Masa from the Kona Game Fishing Club Miyake, who endured our company four of the five days of tough, tough fishing.  For their endless patience, good humor and enthusiastic support of the Great Marlin Race, we say  有難うございます。 (Arigatō gozai masu - or "thank you very much.")

We look forward to sharing the unfolding adventure of the 2010 Great Marlin Race.

Tight lines,

Randy and George

Three Days, Three Tags in the Race

After the first three days of the tournament, three different teams have deployed satellite tags!  Perhaps even more exciting is that we've enjoyed excellent support this year, with many more teams contributing to sponsor tags for the race.


Going into the final two days of the tournament we have six boats carrying satellite tags.  The weather has been beautiful, making for a great couple of days on the water so far.  We have our fingers crossed that the fishing will heat up!

Coming in at the end of our third day of fishing

“ Billfishers, billfishers, billfishers, start fishing, start fishing, start fishing…..!”

The tournament began promptly at 7:30 a.m. this morning, under hazy skies with west winds around 7 mph. Randy and I met the anglers on the docks at 6:30 a.m. to review boat assignments and distribute tagging kits to participating teams.

“And they’re off…!” Sport fishing vessels launching off to chase marlin at the start of the Great Marlin Race

We were assigned to Team #17 - Kona Billfishing Club – Miake, the same team that we joined on the inaugural day of the first Great Marlin race in 2009! Adding to the coincidence, Team Miake was assigned the vessel Rod Bender - the same vessel and skipper (Kerwin Masunaga) from 2009. We were back on the water with our friends, Matsaharu Matsushita (Masa) and Takeo (‘Uki’) Izawa from Japan!

Kona Game Fishing Club – Miake: Uki (left), Masa (center), George Shilllinger (rear), and Rob Kurz (right).

The first fish of the tournament, a shortnose spearfish, was caught and released by angler Hideo Hoshino from the Kona Game Fishing Club-Kusatsu, minutes after the tournament was underway, at 7:50 a.m.

Unfortunately, luck was not on our side on today. After a long day of trolling the waters off Kona, we returned to the docks with all of our satellite tags in hand. In spite of our bad luck, today was still a great day for the HIBT, with 10 blue marlin and

2 shortnose spearfish caught and released.