PEARFISH Issue 21 TheS Billfish Foundation’s Conservation Program For Kids Who Care About Our Oceans Photo by Thomas Adrien THE SAILFISH WHY THE SAIL? Winter is quickly approaching and When you look at a sailfish, it is obvious to see that means one thing for anglers in how it got its name. The high dorsal fin (the fin Florida-Sailfish season! Sailfish are that runs across the top of its body) resembles a known as the fastest swimmers in sailboat’s sail. However, why did the species the ocean, reaching up to 60 miles develop such an unusual fin? Anglers and per hour! They live in warm ocean scientists have come up with some of the following waters and eat things like tuna, ideas we will go on to discuss. jacks, and even octopus! Have you ever wondered how the sailfish got SHOWDOWN AT THE BAItfISH CORRAL! its name or wonder what the purpose Sailfish often feed near reefs, where large schools of the “sail” might be? Read on to of baitfish, such as ballyhoo, school. Groups of discover more. Is IT COLD IN HERE? Sailfish are ectotherms, which mean that their bodies do not stay at a constant temperature, like our human bodies do. They are at the mercy of their surroundings. If sailfish get too cold, their body cannot function properly and they may become sluggish, making it difficult for them to capture their prey. Some scientists believe a sailfish can use its sail almost like a big “solar panel.” By raising its sail and swimming at or near the ocean’s surface, the fish can warm itself by allowing the sun to warm the A sailfish near a bait ball blood that passes through the sail before traveling to the rest of the body. sailfish will sometimes raise their dorsal fins, surrounding and swimming circles around baitfish. SHOW ME A SIGN! This is known as “balling bait,” because when If you were a sailfish looking for other sailfish in the surrounded, the baitfish will swim in a small group big, blue ocean, how would you do it? A billboard that resembles a ball. While the baitfish are would certainly help. How about a great big fin on corralled, a sailfish will charge into the school, your back? Sounds like a good idea. Some people eating as many fish as it can. The sailfish will “take believe that the sail is an attention getter that can be turns” doing this until each has had its fill. seen at great distances by other sailfish. So, there you have it... a few good ideas on why HIT THE BRAKES! sailfish have sails. We would love to hear why you Sailfish are very fast swimmers and have been think they may have sails and what they could be estimated ti reach speeds of more than 60 miles per used for. Get creative! We may highlight your ideas hour! They use this amazing speed to catch food in in the next issue of Spearfish! the open ocean. When they catch up to their prey they need a way to slow down. How do you stop a speeding sailfish? Some anglers have suggested that REVIEW: a sailfish raises its sail to slow down–using it as 1. Why are they called Sailfish? “brakes” in the water. 2. How fast can Sailfish swim? 2. What are some uses of their dorsal fin? David Collier Copyright 2014 • The Billfish Foundation • Editor: Peter Chaibongsai • Associate Editor: Beth Black • Graphic Designer: Jackie Marsolais Sister Publications: Billfish and Sailfish magazines • Published by The Billfish Foundation • For subscription information contact: [email protected] YOUTH PROFILES Before she was in the third grade, GILLIAN RICKS of Quitman, Texas, fell in love with offshore fishing. Onboard the El Cazador with her family, she caught and released her first sailfish in waters off Panama. A few years after, off the coast of Bermuda, she caught her first marlin. In the summer of 2014 her quest for a large billfish took her back to Bermuda. It was in the Bermudan waters one morning that she had a blue marlin take the bait and make a spectacle behind the boat as the reel screamed. Gillian jumped into the fighting chair, independently set the hook and fought the blue for an hour and twenty minutes without assistance. Her father, Sail, said “it’s an emotional struggle to just stand back and not help your child when you know the difficulty of their challenge, but this was hers to win and we knew that she was capable and determined. We are very proud of her.” The fish was over 330 pounds and qualified her for a world record in her age group. “My arm was hurting but when I knew the fish was big enough, I just kept reeling”, explained the bashful, 8 year old at the weigh station in front of reporters, photographers and cheering spectators. COLE SIEVEKING, an 8 year old angler from Tennessee, went with two friends and their fathers down to the beautiful Casa Vieja Lodge on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. On October 23, 2014, Cole, his friends, and their fathers all went fishing out of Puerto San Jose, Guatemala, aboard Rum Line. In all the excitement, Cole tagged and released, not one, but two, 85-pound sailfish in excellent condition. TBF applauds Cole and his friends for their conservation efforts by not only fishing with proper gear (circle hooks) but for tagging and reporting the data on TBF’s online database. It is only thru such examples that TBF’s message can reach Chris Sheeder across the world to all anglers! Copyright 2014 • The Billfish Foundation • Editor: Peter Chaibongsai • Associate Editor: Beth Black • Graphic Designer: Jackie Marsolais Sister Publications: Billfish and Sailfish magazines • Published by The Billfish Foundation • For subscription information contact: [email protected] Join TBF at Billfish.org | 3 WATER DENSITY EXPERIMENT Does an Orange Float or Sink? Does an orange float or sink when placed in water? Seems like a fairly straight forward question, but is it? Give this fun density science experiment a try and answer the question while learning a unique characteristic of oranges. MATERIALS: • An orange • A deep bowl or container • Water INstrUctIONS: • Fill the bowl with water. • Put the orange in the water and watch what happens. • Peel the rind from the orange and try the experiment again, what happens this time? • What’s happening? The first time you put the orange in the bowl of the air pockets) from the orange increases its water it probably floated on the surface, after you density higher than that of water, making it sink. removed the rind however, it probably sunk to the bottom, why? Density is the mass of an object relative to its volume. Objects with a lot of matter in a certain The rind of an orange is full of tiny air pockets volume have a high density, while objects with a which help give it a lower density than water, making small amount of matter in the same volume have a it float to the surface. Removing the rind (and all low density. 4 | SPEARFISH - The Billfish Foundation TBF Tracking Maps Tagging billfish helps scientists and organizations like The Billfish Foundation learn more about these fish; where they travel to, where they go, when they are found in certain areas and how big they can get! Really cool stuff! WHITE MARLIN recapture! Billfishing off of the North Drop of St.Thomas is known for blue marlin normally, but occasionally white marlin can be found as well. One such white marlin was tagged on March 11, 2011 onboard Marlin Prince by past TBF tagging winner Capt. Eddie Morrison and angler Harry Gerling. The marlin was then at large for 1297 days. It was recaptured ! by Capt. Richard Barrett and Angler Peter Cherasia on Shark Byte off of the Virginia coast-1394 miles from where it was tagged. They estimated the white marlin to be about 45 pounds and 60 inches and re-tagged and released it in excellent condition. This BLUE MARLIN was ! tagged and released aboard the Out of Bounds by Tom Hughes in April of 2009. When Capt. Scott Gaeckle, mate, Chris Starkweather and Tom Hughes recaptured and released the blue marlin they estimated it weighed 100 lbs. More than five years later this blue marlin was recaptured by Fernando Torres Cabrerra off the coast of Cuba. After 1,969 days at large the fish grew to an estimated 225 pounds and TBF is glad to report it was released in good condition. Make sure to report your releases at TagBillfish.org. You can find more maps like these on Billfish.org and on TBF’s Fan page on Facebook at Facebook.com/BillfishFoundation. Join TBF at Billfish.org | 5 GET INVOLVED! Would you like to be play a bigger role in conservation and with The Billfish Foundation? Here are some fun, simple ways to conserve on and off the water. • If you are going fishing, invite a friend to come along with you. This reduces resources that you both use to get out and fish. • You can fish responsibly by practicing catch and release fishing techniques. • Remember to recycle your mono line when you get back to the dock or find a local tackle shop that will recycle it for you. • Take care of your fishing gear! Wash it and properly store it when you are done fishing for the day so you make it last a long time. • Plan a day to clean up the lakes and streams around your community.