A marine heatwave is believed to be behind an increase in marlin catches.
A marine heatwave is believed to be behind an increase in marlin catches.
A Northland fishing club is reeling with excitement after a record number of marlin were tagged off the east coast of Whangārei.
While not conclusive, scientists believe a significant marine heatwave combined with the nature of marlin may be playing a role.
More than 300 marlin have been tagged by the Whangārei Deep Sea Anglers Club, and 32 landed since the season kicked off in December. The prized game fish were caught roughly an hour off the Tūtūkākā Coast.
The numbers were even more impressive given 79 of those marlin were tagged or landed in two days followed by another 62 the next weekend.
Lucy Hale, who oversees the club’s tournaments and marketing, said the first major haul was in the Cedex Steel Supply Solutions Combine Trades Tournament on January 27 and 28.
Forty-nine teams competed among whom were the winners, Team Matador, who ran out of tags after successfully tagging 12 striped marlin and landing two over the course of the weekend.
A week later, anglers in the women-only fishing competition, the NZ Luxe & Bucket List Charters Nautigals Tournament, caught the most marlin in the competition’s history.
“I have had club members come in, who have been a part of the club since it started in 1944, saying they have never seen a season like this before,” Hale said.
“We’ve definitely been breaking club history and records with the amount of marlin caught in two days.”
A dated photo displayed in the clubroom suggests the most marlin caught in a day was 27. Back then, Hale said, marlin were only landed, not tagged and released like nowadays.
Among the anglers to land a marlin was Nautigals competitor and mother-of-five Nikki Clarke. After a 40-minute battle, she reeled in a 152.6kg blue marlin - a moment, she said, she had been waiting for for 30 years.
Clarke grew up sailing on a boat built by her father, berthed at the Tūtūkākā Marina. As a child, she used to watch the fish get weighed in. From then, it was all she wanted to do.
But pulling in a marlin was no easy feat, she said. Her arms burned, she shook, the other women on the boat kept her hydrated by pouring water into her mouth.
Whangārei angler Nikki Clarke with the 152.6kg blue marlin she caught during the Nautigals tournament in Tūtūkākā .
“I was exhausted,” she said. “The lactic acid builds up and you feel a bit sick afterwards with the adrenaline rush and everything but you’re just thinking the whole time, I just don’t want to lose it.”
Hale said while many factors could be behind the spike in marlin, there was a warm patch of water off the coast.
Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said there had been a significant marine heatwave off the east coast of Northland and out to sea in January. He believed a warm water runway south may be helping to boost marlin numbers.
This year mimicked 2022 as both had surpassed the 21C threshold for the sea surface temperature early in the year and maintained it for several weeks. But 2022 lacked large marlin catches similar to this year’s, Noll said.
“The main difference between 2024 and 2022 is the extent of the marine heatwave, whereby the 2024 is much more expansive, covering the area between northern New Zealand and the tropics, while 2022 covered the New Zealand region and to the south.”
According to Niwa marine ecologist Dr Irene Middleton, data shows the last spike in marlin catches was in 2016, which was believed to have been during an El Niño climate pattern. Marlins tend to track warmer waters.
Middleton said increased catch rates in areas within a marlin’s known spatio-temporal range were likely more of an indicator of short-term weather or climate patterns - such as heatwaves - rather than long-term climate change and warming.
But what is interesting, she noted, was the pattern of different species turning up.
Middleton said short-billed spearfish used to be a common catch out of Tūtūkākā a few years ago but have not featured this year.
And when it came to the surprise visits by whale sharks in Northland waters earlier this week, Dr Mark Erdmann of Conservation International said one neer knows where or when they will turn up.
Hale and her friends were out fishing in Tūtūkākā on Tuesday when they came across a whale shark. She and her mates took turns jumping into the water to swim with the 10m animal.
Hale said the whale shark seemed really interested in the group and stayed with them for about an hour.
In McKenzie’s case, the whale shark came close to the boat and at one point swam underneath it multiple times.
