Last March, Californian Bob Kurz, a trustee with the International Game Fish Association, and his IGFA rep wife Sally took an important step to advance billfish science around the world: they implanted …
Successful First Day at the FTL Boat Show
28 Oct 201011:22 PM
Day 1 of the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show was a huge success for the team from Guy Harvey Outpost Ltd. Lots of fans of the Big Game Club – old and new – came by the Guy Harvey booth at Bahia Mar Marina to register for the BGC getaway, tell some fishing stories, and to meet the man himself, Dr. Guy Harvey.
In addition to Guy, many other Guy Harvey Outpost and Guy Harvey Inc. notables were in the booth today – Mark Ellert, GHO President; Chris Pollock, GHO Dir. of Operations; Dive Bimini’s Neal Watson; Steve Stock, President of Guy Harvey Inc.; Sean Collins, VP of ARK Paddleboards; and Doc Gruber, Director of the Bimini Biological Field Station.
Lots more in store for the remainder of the show, so come by the booth, meet the team and register for a chance to win the BGC getaway. Also, check us out on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for news and photos from the show.
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![](mailto:?subject=Successful First Day at the FTL Boat Show&body=Day 1 of the <a title="FTL Boat Show web site" href="http://www.showmanagement.com/fort_lauderdale_international_boat_show_2010/event/" target="_blank">Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show</a> was a huge success for the team from <a title="About the GH Outpost" href="http://www.biggameclubbimini.com/aboutus.htm" target="_blank">Guy Harvey Outpost Ltd</a>. Lots of fans of the <a title="BBGC web site" href="http://www.biggameclubbimini.com" target="_blank">Big Game Club</a> - old and new - came by the Guy Harvey booth at <a title="Bahia Mar web site" href="http://www.bahiamarhotel.com/" target="_blank">Bahia Mar Marina</a> to register for the BGC getaway, tell some fishing stories, and to meet the man himself, Dr. Guy Harvey.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/boatshoweblast.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-224" title="Bimini Big Game Club Giveaway" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/boatshoweblast.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a>
In addition to Guy, many other Guy Harvey Outpost and Guy Harvey Inc. notables were in the booth today - Mark Ellert, GHO President; Chris Pollock, GHO Dir. of Operations; <a title="Dive Bimini web site" href="http://www.biggameclubbimini.com/diving.htm" target="_blank">Dive Bimini's </a>Neal Watson; Steve Stock, President of <a title="Guy Harvey Inc. web site" href="http://www.guyharvey.com" target="_blank">Guy Harvey Inc.; </a>Sean Collins, VP of <a title="ARK Paddleboards web site" href="http://arkboards.com/" target="_blank">ARK Paddleboards</a>; and Doc Gruber, Director of the <a title="BBFS web site" href="http://www6.miami.edu/sharklab/index.html" target="_blank">Bimini Biological Field Station</a>.
Lots more in store for the remainder of the show, so come by the booth, meet the team and register for a chance to win the BGC getaway. Also, check us out on <a title="BBGC on Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/BiminiBigGameClub" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and follow us on <a title="Guy Harvey Outpost on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/GHOutpost" target="_blank">Twitter</a> for news and photos from the show. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/223-2/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Great Marlin Race May Come to Galapagos&body=Last March, Californian Bob Kurz, a trustee with the International Game Fish Association, and his IGFA rep wife Sally took an important step to advance billfish science around the world: they implanted a striped marlin with a pop-off satellite tag while fishing around Ecuador's <a href="https://guyharveyoutpost.com/adventure/outpost-adventures/expeditions/galapagos-big-game-fishing/">Galapagos Islands</a>.
The tag, scheduled to detach from the fish's dorsal fin after 240 days, was the first to be implanted in a billfish in the remote Pacific islands as part of the IGFA's Great Marlin Race. Since the IGFA took over the international tournament-within-a-tournament in 2011, some 350 satellite tags have been deployed in billfish in 22 countries. The tags record fish tracks in real time, including depth, temperature and other data, then relays them to a satellite which beams the information to researchers at California's Stanford University. Anglers buy the $4,500 tags and receive special recognition for the distances their tagged fish travel.
Sally Kurz caught the striper, estimated at 200 pounds, while trolling lures on the sport fishing boat Vertigo from the Galapagos Planet Hotel, a <a href="https://guyharveyoutpost.com/lodging/out-island-lodges/">Guy Harvey Outpost Lodge</a> on <a href="https://guyharveyoutpost.com/lodging/out-island-lodges/galapagos/san-cristobal/">San Cristobal Island</a>. The couple also caught and released numerous yellowfin tuna. They were accompanied by a representative of the Galapagos National Park.
"They liked what we were doing," Bob Kurz said of park officials. "They are very interested in learning more about the billfish that frequent the Galapagos."
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/tag.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4901" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/tag.jpg" alt="" width="3264" height="2448" /></a>
Kurz was so encouraged by the park's receptiveness that he is putting together a proposal to hold the first formal Great Marlin Race Tournament in the Galapagos in January 2019. He says that's prime time for catching stripers as well as blue and black marlin around the islands.
"Wherever you have a species, you try to deploy tags in as many different places as you can," Kurz said.
For example, Kurz said, tagging data helps solve mysteries such as why the average striper caught in California weighs about 140 pounds while fish over 300 pounds are common in New Zealand-- "whether they are separate and distinct populations," he said.
The tagging data also helps scientists inform fisheries managers who are hammering out policies to conserve billfish, such as time-and-area closures, gear restrictions and other measures.
"It's a citizen science program," Kurz said. "Very exciting for people who enjoy fishing for marlin."
******
You don't have to wait for the next Great Marlin Race to fish for billfish in Galapagos. Book your lodging and fishing with Galapagos Planet, a Guy Harvey Outpost Expedition Lodge at <a href="https://www.guyharveyoutpost.com">www.guyharveyoutpost.com</a> or call 1-800-513-5257.
To learn more about the Great Marlin Race, visit <a href="https://www.igfa.org">www.igfa.org</a>. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/great-marlin-race-may-come-to-galapagos/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Sword Fights in the Cayman Islands&body=About 12 years ago, Cayman Islands businessman Clarence Flowers-- an avid sport angler-- chartered Miami Beach captain Bouncer Smith for a South Florida swordfishing excursion. Smith shared his tactics and techniques with his customer and they caught a fish. Flowers told the captain about the nascent recreational swordfishery in his Caribbean home waters: a 600-pounder had actually beached itself in Grand Cayman Island's North Sound and recreational anglers were taking some hefty ones on hook-and-line. That fateful conversation led to the inaugural Cayman Swordfish Challenge in 2005.
The 11th Challenge just wrapped up last weekend with local angler Thom Guyton taking top honors for boating four swords--including the tournament's largest, a 108.2-pounder--and releasing one off Cayman Brac.
The contest also serves as an on-water laboratory for scientists seeking to learn as much as possible about this unsung, but robust recreational fishery.
"Better than ours-- especially the night fishing," Smith, a 50-year-veteran charter captain, said of Cayman Islands swordfishing. "The daytime I would say is on a par with here--maybe slightly better."
Fisheries scientist Travis Moore of Pompano Beach-based Gray FishTag Research was on the water for the two-day contest and implanted a 54-incher with a satellite tag before releasing it. The tag, anchored in the dorsal fin, will detach after a year and beam minute-to-minute data about the fish's movements to a satellite which downloads the data to Moore's computer. It is the ninth satellite tag to be implanted in Cayman Island swords by Moore and colleagues since 2011.
"What we're doing is to help develop this fishery for the Cayman Islands," Moore said. "The Cayman government may decide to use this data to regulate foreign fleets coming into their waters."
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SwordTag2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4666" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/SwordTag2.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="960" /></a>
Right now, both Moore and Smith say, there 's really no directed commercial fishery for swords in the Cayman Islands; the effort is primarily recreational with a few fish kept to eat or sold to local restaurants. But as word of the bounty gets out, the powerful and tasty billfish potentially could face heavy exploitation and would require careful management. The islands' record is a 392-pounder caught in 2012.
Moore says preliminary satellite tracking data shows the Cayman Islands serve as a "rest stop" for the tasty pelagics that hang out here roughly from November through May, then head north as waters warm.
"They're feeding in a perpendicular pattern to the Cayman Trench before going north," he said.
Recreational anglers target them in ways similar to their South Florida counterparts: deep-dropping squid, small tunas, bonitos or belly strips in 1,600 to 1,800 feet of water in daytime and either drifting or slow-trolling baits with planers 100 to 300 feet deep at night. Smith says all three of the Cayman Islands-- Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman--are basically sea mounts surrounded by very deep waters where upwellings concentrate bait, and therefore swords could be found just about anywhere.
"You can fish so close to the islands that you can read the license plates on the cars," he said.
Moore relishes the opportunity to enjoy the sport and collect important information at the same time.
"The fishing there is really off the charts," he said. "Amazing." https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/sword-fights-in-the-cayman-islands/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Connecting With One Special Veteran&body=On this Veterans’ Day the staff at Guy Harvey Outpost would like to share a letter we received from a Veteran. This letter has moved each of us and we are honored to have Veterans as our guests.
Dear Anyone,
My name is Christian and I am a disabled veteran. I recently had an opportunity to spend time at the Islander Resort, a Guy Harvey Outpost on Islamorda. I have to say it changed my life. I am writing Mr. Harvey and wondering if he would ever be interested in opening a facility in the islands for veterans? I know its crazy but I spent 3 days there and I slept more in three days than in years. I felt at peace and I didn't have bad dreams. I got to feel and smell and touch things without feeling anger or hate, I found my Jesus.. My wife Janet cried because for the first time in years I slept, and it was a beautiful sleep..
I bought a print of yours that hangs in my office at home. I look at it everyday and it brings me.. Hope, joy, peace.. I don't have a name like Guy Harvey but I believe your name can change the lives of veterans... The life style can release the anger and start the healing. I know this is a long shot and I don't expect much but what if we could open another resort? What if we could give them peace? What if we could save a generation from suffering and give them hope? No matter what happens I thank you. I am staying at the Islander again in July... No matter what I thank you for sleep.. I can never repay you for the peace I feel in Islamorada.
I hope and pray for you.. Thank you, Christian
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-veterans-day.png"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2334" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-veterans-day.png?w=550" alt="2014-Veterans-Day" width="550" height="430" /></a>
On Christian’s July visit he brought his family including his father (a former Navy SEAL). We look forward to the family's next visit.
See our response in the next Outpost Blog post.
https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/connecting-with-one-special-veteran/){kind=link}
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