The Coastland Times

PUERTO RICO CHALLENGES DARE COAST AND CLAIMS BLUE MARLIN LEADERSHIP

West Indian Yacht Club Commodore Flings Bold Challenge to North Carolina, Send Contenders, and to Receive Some to Prove That This Caribbean Island Has Better Blue Marlin Fishing.

Having landed something better than 12 tons of blue marlin meat off the Dare County coast this year, with some others being caught at Morehead City, North Carolina has been claiming to be marlin capital of the country, so much so that an international tournament is being planned in 1959 at Hatteras.

Now comes from Puerto Rico a question to that claim, with Esteban A. Bird, official of a fishing club at San Juan, offering on behalf of his island in the Caribbean, a dispute to that claim. Further he has challenged North Carolina to a contest, whereby sportsmen from both Puerto Rico and North Carolina would fish in the waters of their opponents.

In his letter last week to Aycock Brown, Senor Bird makes these comments:

"There seems to be some question as to whether your state may have achieved the supreme distinction of having even more blue marlin than Puerto Rico ...

"I must tell you that it is very difficult for a Puerto Rico fisherman to believe that any place has more Marlin than the blue waters around our lovely island.

"Unfortunately, we do not keep records of our seasonal catches. All I can tell you is that - We caught 22 blues in the four days of our Fifth International Game Fish Tournament last month. In the San Juan area alone, more than 600 blue marlins have been caught in the last ten years.

"We held the world's record for the largest blue marlin ever caught on rod and reel-756 pounds on a 80-pound test line by Allen Sherman in April, 1956. We have twice boated nine blues in one day.

"Angel Abarca caught three blues in one day here. Two of them weighed 350 pounds and one, 150. I myself have caught two in a single day, one a 452 pounder.

"If in spite of all this, the splendid people and the very capable fishermen of North Carolina still think North Carolina may have better blue Marlin fishing than Puerto Rico, I would like to sug-

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gest that we settle the matter in some definitive way.
"Let the fishermen of North Carolina select the season when the Marlin fishing there is best, and we will set a time in September or October when our run is at its peak.
"Then we will invite a team of your choosing to come' to Puerto Rico to fish with us at our best season, and we will select a team to go to North Carolina and fish with you at your best season. We can both agree to let the results speak for themselves.
In that way I am sure we can settle for once and for all the question of which area has the most blue marlin, and catches the most. Then if the controversy flares up again, we can do the whole thing over in another year or so and settle it for once and for all again."
Mr. Brown, manager of the Dare County Tourist Bureau says 51 blues were caught off Hatteras during this season. the fish having a total weight of over 16,000 pounds; and that 25 were caught off Oregon Inlet, or rather from boats based at Oregon Inlet, having a total weight of nearly 8.000 pounds, which makes a total of twelve. tons of these giant fish sportsmen have landed off the Dare coast.