MEMBERSHIP PAGES

• Elite
• Corp.
• Adult
• Keike

E-Mail Us

Developed from our tiny Pico PTT- I 00 this unique Pop-Up tag gives the Marine Biologist, for the first time, the ability to track the movements of large Pelagic fish.

The tag is housed in a composite, positively buoyant, low-drag housing that is towed by the fish via a short 'leader' attached to a 'tagging' dart.  After a pre-programed period, the release mechanism on the nose of the float is activated by the internal microprocessor.

While attached to the fish, the tag records temperature based on hourly readings.  Averages are computed to give 61 readings over the life of the tag.

An integrating inclinometer computes the average angle of the body of the tag to vertical as it is towed by the fish; normally this should be near horizontal.  After pop up, a second reading of the inchnometer again shows the angle of the tag as it floats; normally this should be near vertical.  This 'information can be used to confirm that the tag was not free floating before pop up, i.e., it was on the fish.

After release from the fish, the tag floats to the surface and starts transmitting to ARGOS.  Given good sea state conditions, ARGOS can determine the position of the tag within a few hours, and begin collecting the stored data.

Our commitment to continually stretch the technology to its limit, and to invest in the equipment necessary to design, build and test such devices in house has led to this unique tag.

35 Marlin Tracks and Travel Data to Be Posted
Through the cooperative effort of NMFS/U of Hawaii, The Maui Jim Series Tournaments and Kona Charter Boat crews, 38 pop up archival tags were deployed on marlin last summer in Kona.  We are pleased to announce that 35 of these tags have successfully released themselves from the marlin and have reported back in to the scientists!  Please check back often as we being the process of posting the travel routes and bathymetric movement trends of these mysterious animals.

GO to deployment schedule

HCA reports surfacing of marlin tag off Ni'ihau

Special to WHT

Niihau, the smallest inhabited island in Hawaii, lies at the north west end of the main island chain. The local populace has been shielded for the most part from modern technology. How ironic that a pop-up archival tag (or PAT) released itself from a marlin and surfaced 50 miles southwest of the island to upload data to a satellite.The PAT, which records the trav el patterns and depth of the marlin it's planted on, was placed on a blue marlin July 19 by Rob Wilson of Houston, Texas, who was fish ing aboard Kila Kila with Capt. Carl Schloder and owner Steve Schumacher..At large for two months, the mar lin and its route to Niihau will be decoded from the data by scientists in Maryland after the device com pletes transmitting over the next few weeks.For now, only the tagging and pop-up positions are known. The marlin traveled at least 300 miles in exactly 60 days, or averaged 5 miles per day. Marlin can swim at speeds close to 30 miles per hour and are commonly seen paddling along at 3 to 5 mph when not hunt ing. The PAT, which is roughly the size of a cigar with an egg attached to the end, was purchased by the Hawaii Conservation Association as one of six PAT's used to kick off its "Lure an Angler to Research" program last summer. HCA is working in association with Dr. Richard Brill of National Marine Fisheries Service and biol ogist Andrew West, who is com pleting his Ph.D. in marine science while teaching at the University of the Nations in Kona.

To follow the tracks of the mar un tagged by HCA's "Lure an Angler to Research" program, log on to hawaiica.org or link through the tournament sites konatourna ments.tappedinto.com and kona tournaments.com on the Internet. Cable channel espn2's coverage of the Maui Jim Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series and the final PAT deployment of this series should air in January. For more information, contact Jody Bright at the HCA at 331-1191:

Hawaii Leads Pacific Regions in Billfish Tagged and Tag Research

 Contrary to images portrayed in recent press, Hawaii leads the Pacific islands and Pacific Americas in number of billfish tagged and released each year - by a huge margin. Reporting numbers of tags deployed each year to NMFS Southwest Fisheries Center are the following regions: Southern California U.S.A., Baja California Mexico, Hawaii, Manzanillo/Acapulco Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Hong Kong, Guam, Fiji, Tahiti, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tonga and Midway.

 From 1984 to 1998 Hawaii averaged tagging 481 billfish each year. The closest tag destination was Baja California with an average of 173 billfish tagged, or about 35% of what Hawaii tags each year.  Southern California reports

 an average of 97 tags a year. The Hawaii Conservation Association has kicked off a new program known as "Lure an Angler to Research" that will publicize opportunities for anglers to participate with top Pacific scientists by releasing their marlin with a Pop up Archival Tag (PAT) attached to the fish. HCA's program intends to promote 4 things: (1) support for PAT technology to get prices down, capabilities up and the mass numbers deployed needed for sound science (2) Statistically prove mortality rates of tagged marlin (3) scientifically document actual travel patterns of Pacific marlin (4) show the world that Hawaii not only supports tagging, but is the world leader in tag and release research. Anglers in the Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series shall have the opportunity of participating in the program, and all deployments shall be filmed for ESPN 2's "Xtreme Sports" programming, and video of the events shall be streamed on the World Wide Web. Viewers shall be able to go to HCA websites and follow progress of the program and marlin tracks through HCA's "Track a Marlin" program.

 For more information on HCA's "Lure an Angler to Research" program contact them at 808-331-1191 or fax 808-325-5039. To participate in the Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series contact Tropidilla Productions, L.L.C. at 808-327-1440 or e-mail us at info@konatournaments.com or visit konatournaments.com

Marlin Tracked with Satellites in 14th BIIMT

Event to be Captured by ESPN 2

  Kailua-Kona, HI  -Publicly funded wildlife research takes center stage starting mid June in the waters off the Kona Coast. Studying animals that are fairly maverick - to say the least - in what is arguably the most difficult environment on Earth from which to study will  take on the added task of capturing the action on film for international television.

 The Maui Jim Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series resumes the tour with the second leg on Hawaii Island. The 14th Annual Big Island Invitational Marlin Tournament kicks off with team registration and an angler/crew briefing on Wednesday June 14. And what a briefing it is expected to be.

 Most big game tournament briefings are fairly mundane affairs with the most of the over qualified skippers in the Kona charter fleet paying more attention to the T-shirt girl or the spread of food than to the announcements being made about how to find the start fishing line and what size line they can fish with. They've heard all that a million times before.

 A few handfuls of excited new anglers on the tournament scene usually fill in the seats near the stage, along with the more taciturn competitors looking for a competitive edge hidden in the fine print of the rule book.

 That is all about to change as the BIIMT launches phase one of "Lure an Angler to Research", the ambitious program being offered by the Hawaii Conservation Association (HCA) in association with the Maui Jim Hawaii Marlin Series, National Marine Fisheries Service, corporate sponsors and the angling public entered in Series tournaments.  All anglers involved, be they neophytes or those with deck shoe moss growing on their toes will have the chance to participate in actual research by applying high tech devices on marlin - and then setting them free into the vastness of the Pacific.

 This cutting edge research is being supervised by Dr. Richard Brill, Ph.D. of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu. Brill will be working with soon to be Ph.D. Andrew West, a biologist from Australia working on his doctorate in Kona by catching and studying juvenile marlin, with the help of the Hawaii Conservation Association. West will take a short break from catching baby marlin barely 3 inches long to work with adults that can reach sizes nearing 2,000 pounds.

 At the 14th BIIMT, Brill and West will be concentrating on finding some strong, healthy marlin between 200 and 300 pounds with the goal of coercing these most dangerous animals with spears on their heads to just please lie still there - just a couple of minutes will do - while they try and attach a tube like device to their back with a hand held dart. From there, provided that they don't have to extract a spear from a chest or a hook from an arm, the team hopes to let the frisky marlin back into the endless blue depths - and put their feet up for about 90 days or so. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Don't believe it. A million things can go wrong.

 The little computers on the back of these beasts are contained inside a water and pressure proof housing that looks a bit like a cigar with an egg on the end. Extending from the egg is a spiky antenna. The devices are set to detach themselves from the marlin at pre-set intervals of 90, 120 and 150 days. When they detach themselves they are designed to pop up to the surface of the largest of oceans on the planet, and begin transmitting data to a satellite. A pin in a haystack is easy stuff, compared to this.

 Once transmitted to space, the data will then be downloaded to computers in a lab on the mainland. Scientists will then apply complex sets of algorithms to the day light based data. The data will have been archived in the device at sun rise, noon and sunset, every day since the animal was tackled and held down for two minutes by scientists  Brill and West. Mad scientists? You be the judge.

 After this whole procedure, the scientists hope to have the actual track that the marlin took after being released, and plan to display these tracks on ESPN 2 and the world wide web for everyone to see. This has never been done in the Pacific, and it has never been done anywhere during a tournament where the marlin might be worth some $200,000.00 in prize money to boot!

 Tournament rules in the Big Island Invitational are being altered to raise the minimum size of marlin that can be taken to the dock in an effort to provide HCA with more stable platforms for this research than can be afforded by the small marlin normally released in Hawaii. Of maligned for what has been incorrectly alleged in the press, Hawaii does support tag and release. In fact, Hawaii anglers actually tag and release more billfish than any other Pacific destination, according to the data from the South West Fishery Center at La Jolla, California. HCA officers believe that claim might also extend to every single state in the USA, as well.

 HCA and the Maui Jim Series will be establishing "Lure an Angler to Research" and the second phase of the project - "Track a Marlin" - as a year round program. The Maui Jim Series events will provide the large, organized field of boats needed to catch the number of fish required to find the best specimens from May through December. During the non tournament season, HCA shall be working with other organizations such as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is interested to release some marlin from their Pacific atoll wildlife preserves.

 The Big Island Invitational is the longest running major jackpot tournament in Kona, and has produced the richest purse in all of Hawaii just about every year since it was founded in 1987.  To keep the level of competition in the BIIMT at the very highest peak, organizers encourage anglers from all over the globe to come to Kona and fish with skippers that have earned spots on the invitation list by doing one not so simple thing - producing marlin.

 The Maui Jim Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series hopes to up the standard of marlin tournaments the world over by setting the pace of the race to include meaningful research. Anybody can throw parties and catch fish, and most of the competitions around the world raise considerable sums of money for an array of charitable organizations. However, there is just about as much scientific information on hand regarding marlin now as there was 10 years ago. Unfortunately, little of the hard work that has been performed on marlin has had any tangible affect on the status of the stock of marlin in the ocean.

 The new capabilities of today's technology are providing the means to begin compiling the information needed to manage open ocean fish stocks to robust levels, not just levels considered to be "sustainable". Through this partnership of sportsman, science, private funding, corporate sponsorships and government agencies, people in Hawaii are gearing up to head off into the ocean in search of the unknown. Again.

 This is what people in Hawaii and Polynesia have been doing for thousands of years. Now the world gets a chance to participate, or stay at home and watch in on cable TV or the world wide web

 Check out the Maui Jim Series web site located at konatournaments.com, watch ESPN 2 on  Wednesday July 12 and/or Sunday July 23 - or log on to the HCA web site, hica.org, in mid June to choose your level of participation. To inquire e-mail info@konatournaments.com or call HCA at 808-331-1191 and the Maui Jim Hawaii Marlin Tournament Series at 808-327-1440.

Return to LURE AN ANGLER...