Page 84 - Demo

Sports and activities
The importance of
billfish
to the Caribbean
By Guy Harvey, PhD
anyone who knows me, knows that the blue marlin is by far my favourite fish. Nothing beats catching a blue marlin – the fight is strong, the fish is fast and the aerial acrobatics are impressive - providing excellent opportunities for photography, and the
inspiration for much of my art work. Blue marlin can be quite readily available to catch and release here in the Cayman Islands, if you have the right gear and know what you are doing. We are lucky in that you don’t have to go too far offshore, and can catch large pelagic species as close as a quarter of a mile to shore. This is facilitated by our Cayman Trench, and gives our visitors a great experience!
There are many sport fishing operations in Cayman and we have some very talented captains on our seas. You can charter for half a day or a full day and the captains welcome anyone from novice anglers to serious sportsman. They also promote catch and release fishing both offshore and on the reefs, which is important for the future of our fishing success.
The Cayman Islands Angling Club hosts tournaments between January and May every year that are fun for the whole family and attract teams from the wider Caribbean and US. The Cayman Islands International Fishing Tournament also provides an opportunity to enter the big leagues, and a part of the grand prize is entry into the Offshore World Championship in quepos, Costa Rica.
The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation has a long running tagging programme in Cayman where blue marlin are tagged
Majestic sailfish
with PAT (pop-up archival transmitter) tags. The data collected over a period of months, allows scientists from the Guy Harvey Research Institute to map out where the marlin has travelled through analysing the characteristics, e.g. light intensity,
depth and temperature of the water in which it has swam. The programme has been successful in telling us that these apex predators appear to be nomadic, and are likely wandering the oceans in search of food and visiting spawning sites. Continuing this programme will help us to learn more about their key habitats. Billfish are economically important to the Caribbean region and identifying key habitats and migratory corridors will strengthen their management and protection.
Many nations, for example Costa Rica, have heavily relied on the billfish fishery for income from exportation, primarily to the USA. However, recently amendments to the Billfish Conservation Act came into play and the importation of billfish is now banned to the continental US. On a recent expedition in Costa Rica we witnessed long liners who were on strike, worried about feeding their families. However, as we know, these animals are more economically valuable alive and can be sold over and over
again in catch and release sportfishing rather than sold once
on the dinner plate.
Here in Cayman, billfish are not protected and it is legal to harvest them. Luckily, we have very few people who are directly reliant on fishing for food, and we recognise the value of billfish that are allowed to continue swimming the open ocean providing fights, photography opportunities and inspiration over again.
82 | destination Cayman 2019
The blue marlin is Guy Harvey’s favourite fish