We spent the summer of 2016 by shipping the 63′ Merritt “Saranita” to the Eastern Atlantic, fishing La Gomera in the Canary Islands, the big fish island of Madeira and then moved up the mainland of Portugal to fish the Algarve out of Vilamoura. While fine tuning some lures and recording them with our towable Hook Eye camera, we raised a few fish and this one with no bill was quite photogenic. She stayed with us for quite some time and gave us a good look into the camera. It’s hard to tell from the video or the stills, but the fish is either a White Marlin or a Round Scale Spearfish, also called a Hatchet Marlin by some.
Interestingly, I saw several photos from other boats in the same area that had also caught and released fish with no bills, similar to this one. Hope to get back to the Algarve and put a serious effort into tagging and releasing these fish collecting data on their travels and habits.
Capt. Karl Anderson 