March 29, 2005--The Mysterious Shortbill Spearfish
by Scott and Wendy Bannerot

	Skip Nielsen does battle with what was at this point a mystery fish, hundreds of miles offshore while on passage between the Marshall Islands and Tonga. It turned out to be a shortbill spearfish.

There are two things we love about long-distance voyaging to exotic ports. First is that feeling of not having to turn back to some dock or marina when the sun gets low--never having to "go back". And second is the opportunity to witness incredible sea life, experiences that generally occur only if you put in a lot of time in the necessary environment. One such example was the capture, photographing, and gentle release of one of the world's least-known billfish, the shortbill spearfish (Tetrapterus angustirostris).

Three species of spearfish are known, the shortbill (Indo-Pacific and southwestern Atlantic), longbill spearfish (Tetrapterus pfluegeri, Atlantic Ocean only), and the Mediterranean spearfish (Tetrapterus belone, Mediterranean Sea only). Scientists and sport fishermen once believed spearfish were exceedingly rare, but now it seems that by and large they simply don't spend huge amounts of time where people are fishing. What's more, when they do show up, people are now using lures better suited to their tastes, and so consequently they're catching greater numbers of them. The offshore sport fishing industry in Hawaii now actually targets shortbill spearfish at certain places and times. The rest of the year, the best we can say is that they must be off wandering well away from shore. And that's where sailors who fish enter the picture.

When we're on passage, we live out there too. And if we can get enough sleep and keep a good watch while fishing, then interesting things happen out in the deep blue. My old friend Skip Nielsen and I carried this philosophy to a bit of an extreme one year when he came along to help me sail ELAN the 2,700 nautical miles from Majuro, Marshall Islands to Nuku-alofa and finally Vava'u, Tonga. We had the better part of a month at sea on our hands, so we decided that we would fish for billfish 24 hours a day the whole time and see what happened. We caught blue marlin, striped marlin (one time we hooked three marlin at once, losing one and landing a blue and a striped), sailfish, hooked and lost a broadbill swordfish, caught a hammerhead shark, blue shark, mako shark, mahi mahi, wahoo, assorted tuna…but perhaps the most interesting encounter was Skip's capture of a shortbill spearfish.

	Skip Nielsen is a world-famous fishing captain who has worked all over the globe. This was his first chance to personally land a shortbill spearfish, and no one could have been happier or more appreciative. He released the little fellow unharmed moments after this photo.

Skip is a world-famous fishing captain and a recognized expert on many different kinds of fishing. He was constantly experimenting and rigging up innovative offerings to entice the fish. In this case he was running a small lure with an acrylic head, cut to zig and zag and spray at the surface, fitted with a black and red skirt. The spearfish hit and ran so far, hard, and deep that we were convinced it was a yellowfin tuna. We sailed back to regain some line, and never identified the fish until it broke water not far from the boat. Spearfish morphology might be described as intermediate between sailfish and marlin--they have a sort of partial sail, and they are slender and streamlined. Their coloration is brilliantly beautiful, deep navy blue, parts of which they can switch to glowing neon blue when excited, giving way to bright silver sides and belly. This was Skip's first personal capture of the species, and no one on the planet could have been more thrilled or appreciative as, photographs finished, he gave it one last pat and watched it glide off, unharmed, into the inky blue depths.

Flurries of shortbill spearfish show up unpredictably near many of the Pacific Islands frequented by significant numbers of sailors. One year many of the charter fishing boats were hooking them almost daily for a couple of weeks near Vava'u, Tonga. Another year they decided to pop up in New Zealand of all places, well south of what is believed to be their normal range. We caught one en route there once, approximately 325 nautical miles north of Opua. Spearfish are aggressive enough to attack large marlin lures on occasion; however, they are more prone to eat octopus skirts and other small offerings typical of what most sailors deploy in search of fairly small, manageable eating fish like school-sized yellowfin tuna, mahi mahi, and wahoo. I once spotted a photo of a shortbill spearfish, included by a sailor in a sailing magazine article, labeled as "a baby marlin", so I know we're not the only ones catching them. The next time you're feeling well-rested, the weather is fine, and you're out sailing along off the edge, put a little something small and enticing out there on quality tackle and you never know what adventures you'll get yourself in to.