IGFA Great Marlin Race to Expand in SoCal

Striped marlin have become a particular focus for the IGFA Great Marlin Race as they have the widest distribution of any billfish in the Pacific and also likely have multiple populations throughout their range. Collecting movement data using PSATs represents the best way to track individual striped marlin to determine how connected populations might be across the Pacific, especially between Hawaii and Southern California.

 

The International Game Fish Association is excited to announce a new event taking place in Southern California in 2023. The IGFA Great Marlin Race, in partnership with Stanford University, has been deploying tags in Southern California and Mexico since 2014 with the help of dedicated anglers participating in the Master Anger Billfish Tournament. This annual tagging event (“race”) has resulted in the deployment of 43 Pop-up Satellite Archival Tags (PSATs) that collected 2,579 days and 44,423nm worth of striped marlin movement and behavior information.  

The success of this annual tagging event encouraged the IGFA and Stanford to expand in 2023 by creating the 2023 SoCal IGFA Great Marlin Race event that will open up the opportunity to sponsor PSATs to more individuals, clubs, or tournaments. This event will run from the start of September to the end of October and will include a total of 11 PSATs for sponsorship and deployment on striped marlin in Southern California or Mexico. Participants who sponsor PSATs will be entered into the 2023 SoCal IGFA Great Marlin Race competition, where the marlin that travels the farthest wins the “race”. The winner will receive their name(s) engraved on the perpetual SoCal IGMR trophy displayed at Balboa Angling Club and be entered into the overall IGFA Great Marlin Race (the marlin that travels the farthest of all IGFA Great Marlin Race races in a given year). 

Participants who sponsor PSATs will be entered into the 2023 SoCal IGFA Great Marlin Race competition, where the marlin that travels the farthest wins the “race”.

Striped marlin have become a particular focus for the IGFA Great Marlin Race as they have the widest distribution of any billfish in the Pacific and also likely have multiple populations throughout their range. Collecting movement data using PSATs represents the best way to track individual striped marlin to determine how connected populations might be across the Pacific, especially between Hawaii and Southern California. PSATs deployed during previous Master Angler Billfish Tournament events have indicated more potential connectivity between Hawaii and the eastern Pacific than previously thought by fisheries managers, an important piece of information for the assessment, conservation, and management of the species. As such, this expansion and rebranding will allow an increased number of PSAT deployments as well as a longer time frame for deployments that will cover the entire striped marlin season.  

We hope the new SoCal IGFA Great Marlin Race program will increase participation in the research program and yield more critical data on striped marlin behavior and migration patterns. 

For more information on how to participate in IGFA Great Marlin Race events please contact IGFA Conservation Director Dr. Bruce Pohlot at [email protected]