A recently tagged black marlin has wowed researchers and anglers worldwide with its astonishing journey across the Pacific Ocean.
Nearly two years after it was first caught and tagged by a Queensland fisher, the marlin has travelled more than 13,600 km – around a third of the way around the globe – demonstrating the remarkable migratory abilities of these oceanic giants frequently tagged off the WA coast.
This marlin was initially caught by Queensland angler Carlos Zambrana during the Australia Day long weekend of 2023. The fish, estimated at around 15kg and measuring 1.5m in length, was quickly tagged and released during a competition.
Fast forward to late March of this year, when a fisherman near Costa Rica landed an impressive 130kg marlin. During filleting, the crew discovered the same tag that was placed on the marlin in Queensland over two years prior.
The tag, part of the NSW Government’s fish tagging program, revealed that the marlin had travelled over 7,360 nautical miles between Australia and Central America, gaining an impressive 115kg in that time despite the gargantuan voyage.
This makes it the second-longest journey ever recorded by a tagged fish within this global program. The longest was a black marlin tagged off Yorkey’s Knob in Queensland in 1996, recaptured in Costa Rica in 2000, which travelled 7,780 nautical miles.
Marlin are renowned for their ability to undertake extensive seasonal migrations, moving between spawning and feeding grounds across vast oceanic regions.
While this particular journey took place off Australia’s east coast, it highlights the importance of tagging and understanding these magnificent creatures – many of which also migrate through the waters off Western Australia.
The Western Australian Game Fishing Association (WAGFA) has a tagging program run in conjunction with the Game Fishing Association Australia (GFAA), where tags are provided to registered fishing clubs allowing fishers to record information such as the species, date, location and fish condition.
Recfishwest’s Operations Lead, Matt Gillett, emphasised the importance of tagging for unlocking these ocean mysteries.
“For WA fishers and ocean enthusiasts, stories like this serve as a powerful reminder of the long distances our migratory fish can cover and it’s proof that a quick and simple tag during a fishing trip can lead to some cool scientific gatherings in years to come,” said Matt
“Given the tagging program is a citizen science program, it relies heavily on willing anglers and their tagged captures to keep this great program running. By doing so, fishers can help us better understand what these great species are doing to help conservation efforts.”
Several annual WA-based billfish competitions see an influx of marlin and sailfish tags, with 2025’s GAMEX competition alone seeing 350 billfish tagged. An impressive 180 were black marlin, 147 were sailfish and the remaining 23 were blue marlin.
Anyone who catches a tagged fish can report this to GFAA by clicking here.
