Black Marlin Club Anglers Agree To Let Go The Thing They Love

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday June 2, 1998

By ANTHONY HOY Rural Editor

A winter weekday at Bermagui on the far South Coast, and not a tourist in sight.

But every space within cooee of Horseshoe Bay's boat ramps has been staked out long before dawn by an estimated 200 NSW and interstate big-game fishing rigs.

Bigeye, southern bluefin and yellowfin tuna are running the nearby continental shelf in good numbers, luring hordes of recreational anglers up to 20 kilometres offshore.

By day's end, interstate angler Steve Gusman has achieved a lifelong ambition. A 122-kilogram black marlin is being drawn and quartered, readied for the taxidermist before becoming a trophy in Mr Gusman's home at Kealba in Melbourne's outer west.

A frenzied marlin "literally glows after striking a live bait", says Bermagui Big Game Anglers' Club committeeman Adrian Crothers. "A fluorescent green-blue, with their stripes highlighted. They can run a line at up to 100 km/h. And when they jump they can clear the water by six metres.

"And if you tag the marlin and release it, occasionally there's eye contact, as if to say `Thanks pal for letting me go'."

The problem is that, with CSIRO estimates of annual black marlin mortalities in the Western and Central Pacific alone at between 20,000 and 30,000, not enough fishers are letting the marlin go.

Game fishers claim that tuna long-lining is threatening the marlin stocks, prompting the passage through the Senate last week of legislation designed to protect the species.

The long-liners claim they catch black marlin only as bycatch to tuna, and that most are returned to the sea alive.

"We promised that we would impose a mandatory ban on the taking of black marlin and blue marlin by commercial operators as an existing voluntary ban proved to be ineffective," the Minister for Resources, Senator Parer, said.

Under the law, expected to be in force by the end of July, commercial operators must return black and blue marlin to the sea, with offenders facing a $13,750 fine.

And the game fishers are themselves adopting a protective approach, with members of the Bermagui club tagging and releasing 200 marlin this season.

Mr Crothers estimates the total "tag-and-releases" of all species around Bermagui this season at 1,200 to 1,500.

In addition, Bermagui club has imposed a "minimum catch" on its 550 members (some of whom travel from as far as Germany and the United States) of 60 kilograms on fishing lines of 10 kilograms breaking strain and under, and 80 kilograms on any line with breaking strain over 10 kilograms. "But there is some dissent on this issue," Mr Crothers said.

Not that any club protective measures are enforceable. Officials on the club's Bermagui weigh station often grit their teeth when called upon to tally the weight of undersized marlin for the trophy enthusiasts.

© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald

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