My First Billfish!!! :)

[Spot82]

Thanks for all the comments, if you hadn't noticed photography is one of my other favourite hobbies following closely behind the fishing!

My arms have only just recovered I think!!

Anthony

[finding_time]

Anthony

Here's a pic of that marlin i mentioned earlier

[Midnight]

Crikey Ian, I woulda cut that sucker off on sight! haha

Cheers,
Myles

[Spot82]

Far out, that can't be good for them hey! They seem pretty fierce things too, as we pulled a couple off and then stuff them in the esky, later putting a couple of tuna in there also and it appeared one of them had burrowed into the tunas tail!

Thanks for the pic Ian

Anthony

[Liberty]

Nasty suckers those parasites.

Congrats on the fish and nice photos too. What camera do you use?

[reel scream]

Firstly..... Well done Ant. Another feather in the cap mate.

Anthony

Here's a pic of that marlin i mentioned earlier

Would you release that?? Seems cruel. If I found a dog in an isolated area covered in that, the humane thing would be to put it down hey.

Sure it is still obviously feeding, but so would we on our last legs.

Cheers
scott

[Spot82]

Nasty suckers those parasites.

Congrats on the fish and nice photos too. What camera do you use?

Using a d700 nikon with 14-24 f2.8 nikon lens, so its a nice bit of gear, also have the 70-200 f2.8 and 80-400 nikon lenses, nice way to spend a lot of cash, but the photos you get are something else!

[ShaneC]

G'day Scott,

Your question is one I have pondered too, as the infestation will only get worse and at some stage would probably incapacitate the fish. The particular fish that Anthony got didnt have as much on it as the other pic but we did take off quite a bit of the parasite, both for photos and to help it out a bit, but the strands coming off the surface into the fish's flesh were at least a few inches long and deep into the fish. So it was figured that it would do more harm than good, as the original infestation prob occurred from an injury and we were actually opening new wounds by removing it.

This particular fish hit and fought very hard and was obviously a pretty fit fish so it was wasnt overly affected by it... yet! I would be interested to hear the input of someone who is wise in the matter, because if the fish's lifespan is significantly lowered, if/ when the next one is boatside with the same ailment, it will be off to the taxidermist destined for the pool room.

[finding_time]

Shane/ Scott

From memory the fish was fine when hooked, and did all the usual thing and certainly didn't lack energy! Is it cruel? I dont know enough about the paracites to give you an answer to that? Do they kill the fish eventually? Do they drop of once they have reached a certain size/ maturity? Or once there full like leaches? I really dont know but i've just blown up the original picture and included it in a email to someone how would know, so i hope to have a answer to the above questions! I do know that if it was killed to be humane it's chances of survival wouldn't be great...

Ian

[Smithy]

Scotty,

that's a rough call. For all we know they probably only have to get over the border into Mexico, hit water 2 degrees cooler or something and all those parasites probably die of natural causes. When the current is ripping at 2knots they are probably down past Tweed Heads in a day or two if they let the current sweep them along.

Isn't that the theory of why bull sharks swim up into freshwater, to get rid of parasites that have to be in salt? I'd say it is the same for the marlin. They don't seem to get them like that down at Foster or Port Stephens or for that fact off Cairns or Townsville so somewhere in the Coral Sea or off CQ they pick them up, off here they are at their worst and somewhere in NSW they seem to shed them.

[Getout]

I pulled a few parasites off a black the other day. Dunno if it did any good but made me feel better!!

[ShaneC]

Well noted Smithy and thanks, the fish fought well and was very fit. We took quite a bit of the parasite off before we decided we were doing more harm than good and the fish was released in as good as health as you could hope after the best part of an hour on a fishing line. I do like to think that they have a way of ridding themselves of it, much like a shark or a turtle gets rid of parasites, but I dont know if they can. I kept a sample of the parasite in the esky, which attached itself to a tuna being kept for bait and the old man accidentally pegged it in the water while we were washing the boat so the sample couldnt be sent to someone I know who would have appreciated it.

This fish was released in good nick, but I figure if I am to keep a marlin to hang on the wall it may as well be one that may have a diminished chance of survival, thats why I asked. Please let me know the outcome of any answers to questions that we have put forward here, would be very interesting to see if it is a geographical thing.

Cheers,

Shane

[sleepygreg]

Maybe we should chuck the Question to Mitch. Maybe he knows someone who is doing a similar research project on Marlin. Or maybe Julian Peperall(never could get the spelling right on his surname)....I would bet money he has come across this in his travels.

Greg