27th Bonaire International & Local Fishing Tournament

The Billfish Foundation (TBF) was established in 1986 by scientists and concerned anglers who were worried about dwindling billfish stocks and the future of sportfishing. Working worldwide, TBF applies a three pronged approach for the conservation of billfish and associated species by using research, advocacy, and education to ensure that fish stocks are protected and ample sportfishing opportunities are available for future generations. Utilizing both scientific and socio-economic research to show the importance of healthy billfish stocks and impacts on recreational fishing, TBF works with international fisheries management organizations and governments to increase conservation measures that benefit both fish and local communities dependent upon sportfishing. The Billfish Foundation, a membership based organization, relies on a network of dedicated captains and anglers around the world to lead the way for billfish conservation through the use of sustainable tag and release practices.

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Established in 1990, The Billfish Foundation’s Tag and Release Program is the largest private billfish tagging database in the world and the cornerstone of TBF’s conservation and advocacy efforts. With more than 200,000 tag and release reports, TBF receives over 15,000 tag and release records annually from across the globe and provides vital information for billfish conservation.

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The success of TBF’s Tag and Release program is contributed to the dedicated anglers and captains around the globe that voluntarily tag, release, and report their billfish catches. The deployment of traditional tags and the data gathered from recaptured billfish provides valuable scientific data to further understand growth rates, migratory patterns, habitat utilization, and post-release survival rates. Tag and release data also provides valuable information for stock assessments that are instrumental in a time when industrial longlines represent the largest source of marlin mortality. This valuable data, much of it impossible to measure without the use of traditional tagging, provides the groundwork for conservation minded policy, scientific advancement, and gives insight into the demographics and socio-economic benefits generated from billfishing.



As tagging provides The Billfish Foundation with substance for its conservation efforts, TBF recognizes those anglers and captains that tag and release the most billfish each year at an awards ceremony at the Miami International Boat Show. The competition recognizes members who tag and release the most billfish by species in each of the world’s oceans. TBF award winners are the ‘who’s who of the billfishing world’ and are those that do not just catch and release a great number of fish, but embody and share a common conservation ethic. As captains and anglers on the water represent the first line in billfish conservation, recognition of their efforts provides a means to illustrate the direct link between catch and release fishing and marine conservation. To recognize the efforts of all of its members, TBF also provides release certificates for those that report billfish tags and releases.  If you have any questions about the Tag and Release Program or would like to purchase tags, please go to www.billfish.org or contact us at tag@billfish.org or call (954) 938-0150.