Sailfish movement in the Arabian Gulf: a summary of tagging efforts

Abstract

In Arabian Gulf waters of the United Arab Emirates, sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) are seasonally resident from October through April. Recreational anglers started occasional, self-initiated tagging in 1983. Tags originating from one local and five foreign agencies have been infixed. Early tagging and recovery data was often obscure or lost. In 1997, a concerted effort to understand migration cycles began by consolidating tagging practices and monitoring tag recoveries. Conventional dart tags were infixed on 1871 sailfish from 15 April 1996 to 21 April 2001. Recovered tags (n = 92), as of 16 July 2001, indicated a recapture rate of 4.91%. Of these, 90.21% (n = 83) were recovered during May/June in Iranian waters and represent springtime migratory movement leading north-west, further into the Gulf. Time-at-large for all recaptures ranged from 17 to 1148 days, while point-to-point travel extended from 2.5 to 697 km. Sailfish recaptured in the same year (n = 59) and exhibiting migratory movement travelled a mean distance of 474 km. Location of sailfish during late July through September is unknown, owing to deficiencies in tag recoveries, catch data and anecdotal information. The use of pop-up satellite tags is underway to address this question.