Last week, the winner of the 2014-15 IGFA Great Marlin Race was crowned. The tag popped up exactly 180 days after the healthy release of the fish, to reveal it had swam an incredible distance of 5,716 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean, nearly reaching South America! Ernesto Bertarelli was the winning sponsor of the 2014-15 race year. His winning fish is not only the longest distance swam by any billfish in the IGFA Great Marlin Race, but it is the longest linear distance ever recorded on a billfish by an electronic tag.
The 2014-2015 Race Year was the largest race season to date with a total of 63 tags deployed on 27 black marlin, 20 blue marlin, 8 striped marlin, 6 shortbill spearfish, and 2 sailfish in the Bahamas, USA, Nicaragua, Australia, Seychelles, Panama, and Costa Rica. Combined, these fish swam a total linear distance (the point the tag is deployed to the point the tag pops up) of 57,085 nautical miles. One fish, however, was responsible for swimming 10% of the total distance.
On Oct. 28, 2014, during the 2014 Lizard Island, Australia IGMR, Mark Paterson reeled in an estimated 499 kilogram (1,100-pound) black marlin while fishing aboard Kalira with Capt Ashley Wallis.
The Bertarelli Foundation has been a supporter of the Great Northern Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic and has sponsored 25 tags for the IGFA Great Marlin Race, 15 of which were deployed during the 2014 Lizard Island, Australia IGMR.
In addition, the Bertarelli Foundation have installed an acoustic array around Chagos with 63 receivers and tagged 193 animals, seen below in the video.
