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Seasonal Catch-Rates PAPUA NEW GUINEA Little longline catch data are available for the western Solomon Sea and the southeast side of New Britain from April to December (except September). For the Bismarck Sea longline catch data is patchy from May to November. Good concentrations of blue marlin occur around Bougainville and the Solomon Strait, between New Ireland and Bougainville, at least from January through to April. From May through to August these concentrations appear to move down the Solomon Island chain. These concentrations of blue marlin may be associated with schools of large yellowfin tuna, which appear to show similar seasonal variability. Blue marlin also occur in good concentrations off southeast Papua New Guinea in February and may be common in the region from as early as December through to March, a period during which yellowfin tuna catch-rates increase in the northern Coral Sea. Although the data are very sparse, significant catch-rates of blue marlin occur in the Madang region on the north coast from November through to January. These may represent fish moving into the region from the North Equatorial Current, which is a major habitat of blue marlin. Limited data from the New Britain Gamefishing Club do suggest a seasonal shift in the size of blue marlin. The modal size (most common size) of blue marlin caught by the club from March to August has been between 20kg and 50kg. From September to February, on the other hand, the modal size has been between 60kg and 80kg. Although the longline catch-rates give the impression that blue marlin are considerably more abundant in Papua New Guinean waters than black marlin, catch records from the Rabaul club over 20 years suggest these data may underestimate the availability of black marlin to gamefishermen in local nearshore waters. Over this period, the club has weighed twice as many black marlin (92) as blue marlin (42). Over the same period it has weighed many more sailfish than either species (302), a pattern which appears general for the rest of the country. The longline data suggest that sailfish are particularly concentrated in the northwest Solomon Sea around the Huon Gulf and south coast of New Britain, in the central Bismarck Sea and in the Solomon Strait. web@aims.gov.au
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