Bill Seekers: Top End Billfish Research

Led by Charles Darwin University and partnered with Fisheries NT, AFANT, UQ, IMAS, AIMS, Pepperell R & C and NT rec fishers including NTGFIA. This project officially titled The emerging billfish fishing grounds of northern Australia: fisheries description, movements, and hot spots is led by principal investigator Dr Keller Kopf at Charles Darwin University and includes a project team of 12 expert

personnel from the Northern Territory and other parts of Australia as well as project partners Fisheries NT, Amateur Fishermen’s Association of NT (AFANT), University of Queensland, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Pepperell Research and Consulting and recreational fishers including the NTGFIA. The project will cover a list of objectives that will provide a greater understanding of the Billfish fishery in Northern Australia:

1. To provide a description of the emerging recreational fishery for billfish in northern
Australia.

2. To evaluate the movement patterns and hot-spots of billfish habitat-use in emerging recreational fishing grounds of northern Australia using pop-off satellite archival tags.

3. To conduct a pilot study evaluating the feasibility of tagging billfish with pop-off satellite archival tags, internally and externally implanted acoustic tags for long-term monitoring of billfish residency and site fidelity on fishing grounds

4. To collect tissue samples from northern Australia to contribute to a project examining the
genetic population structure and trophic ecology billfish (sailfish or black marlin).

5. To engage recreational fishers in citizen science evaluation of billfish movements and increase growth and economic development of sustainable billfish fisheries in northern Australia through a top end billfish sprint and fisher education. Top End Billfish Research is funded thanks to grants from the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation (FRDC) and Northern Territory Government.