US market for Marlin meat

[islandshark633]

so I was watching Guy Harvey's show last night and he mentions that the USA is the big market destination for marlin caught commercially off Panama, Columbia etc on the Pacific side. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?? I was very surprised to hear that.

I have never seen marlin on a US restaurant menu, or in a food store, but I have in Europe.

[mneptune]

I have never seen Marlin in N. America markets. Could be a black market for them but I haven't heard of anything. I would hate to see that...

[Muddog]

Marline on the USA market is really hard to come by and very rare but I have seen it thow. But I dont know if there serving it over there why not here? but personaly I never had it I would love to try it thow.

[On Island Time]

Summerlins in FP sells a Blue Marlin Smoked Fish Dip...not a brand name but "Blue Marlin". A friend of mine had it at his Memorial Day party. As bad as I hate to say it...it was WAY better than KingFish smoked dip. Didnt know that we were a primary destination though. That is the first I have heard of BM being sold anywhere in FL. Since I have only lived in FL I cant advise anywhere else.

Just a side note>>> I dont belive in harvesting BM's or any billfish for that matter, but there are occasions when a billfish will die. I am a firm believer...if you kill it...you eat it. Never let anything go to waste. Just my 2 cents...sorry if I offended anyone here.

[RiskTaker]

IslandShark33:

Contrary to some of the previous posts on this thread, Blue Marlin is readily available in supermarkets and fish markets in Florida, and it is sold at inexpensive prices. I do not see it being sold at Publix markets in Broward.

But once you go into Miami-Dade county, visit any Latin supermarket and you will see Marlin going for $3.99/lb., I was almost tempted to post $2.99 but it has been a while since I have seen it on sale at that price.

In addition to that, Marlin is commonplace and served in Japanese restaurants in many places in the USA, sushi grade for Sashimi and Sushi.

We are probably aware that Billfish is not allowed for sale from domestic supply chains in the U.S., but recreational harvest is permitted for Sailfish and Blue Marlin, and the wholesale imports are perfectly legal.

Personally, I think that the imports should be permitted/regulated, commensurate with the international Biomass supply. If NMFS is restricting our domestic harvest of Blue Marlin to a specific (head count)/tonnage, then our foreign imports of specific species should also be limited to some resonable quantity restrictions. I do not know if there are any restrictions presently: my guess would be not-restricted. (It does not make ethical sense to have a domestic conserservation mindset yet permit unrestricted foreign supply of the same species we are trying to conserve and protect for future generations.)

At this time I have no intent to recreationally harvest any Florida coast Blue Marlin because they are scarce along our coast. I believe that there should remain a provision within the law to harvest a fish, recreationally, should a fish become mortally wounded so an angler would not have to waste a damaged fish, but angler conservation should be encouraged until there are significant improvements to that species' Biomass. Although I would consider taking one per year from Bahamian waters because of the vast difference in location, fishing pressure and resource supply.

Afterall, they are very good to eat: Seviche, grilled, fried, smoked and Sashimi (ed).

[islandshark633]

It does seem odd that there is all this stigma attached to killing a marlin around here, NMFS restricting the rec guys harvest, all the noise about the PLLs killing all this marlin in by-catch. Jees you publish a pic of a dead marlin and you are a pariah......and yet its perfectly OK to import as much foreign caught marlin as you like and you can sell it legally in the USA. WTF?????

By the way there is nothing to say you can not kill marlin in the Bahamas either, I asked fisheries last time I was there. He said they just assume that rec fishermen will release them, which they do of coarse. As far as I know there is no commercial marlin fishery here.

[RiskTaker]

I am not sure if you recall reading a post from Jerry (Jamaica), a good while back. He reported that he was at a wholesale fish house, Trinidad, if I recall it correctly. There was a fish warehouse stocked full of frozen billfish... Apparently, the eastern buyers (predominantly Japananese, if I recall correct) would be interested in the Tunas. The billfish were the lesser desireable fish and accumulated to stocked inventory proportions, 1000s of billfsh. (Jerry, help me out if I mistated details of your eye-witness experience.)

Hence, Carribbean caught billfish sells cheap on the wholesale market. But cheap wholesale prices may not necessarilly deter a fisherman from harvesting billfish that has a very low gross income nor does it alter commercial by-catch numbers, unless you modify the way you fish.

Obviously, marketing can change the mark in the supply/demand curves. My opinion is that people will eat anything that tastes good, also, the U.S. population is highly susceptible to marketing influence and the only way to sustain a Bio-mass is to regulate it once significant pressure has been peeked by marketing and recreational/commercial fishermen. So yes, there should be some measurable limits on how much billfish the U.S. can import. (To a domestic commercial fisherman, it probably sounds like preaching to the choir and it probably is: but it must be re-iterated time and again until there is some traction in the domestic market.)

As a matter of fact the same course of action would help buoy domestic Swordfish prices. Don't take my statements out of their context, I am all for good prices on things that be buy, but we must vigilently balance cheap with the environmental (impact/domestic product) actions have and stay on the path of moderation. Extremes in either direction invariably seems to result in some long term malady that must be addressed/corrected by some group other than the responsible party.

[quack quack]

I think only Pacific marlin could be sold in the US.

[NightCrawler]

you can find blue marlin at many fish markets in SF. Hell, sedano's has it for as little as 3 or 4 dollars a pound. Oh and by the way it is excellent eating, cooked or raw. Just about every sushi place has it on the menu, no big deal.
I think, most of it comes from panama and ecuador.

[RiskTaker]

Originally Posted by quack quack

I think only Pacific marlin could be sold in the US.

I do not know the answer for sure, so your statement could be correct. Also, the backed up inventory from the Carribbean based supplier, could be an indicator that there was not sufficient market (or blocked markets) for those fish.

But that would make sense.... if it is the way you suspect.

[Yellow Dog]

As mentioned earlier, sometimes when a blue dies during the fight the guys will bring them back to the dock and smoke them. That is the only way I have heard them being cooked here in NC. I have never had it but am told it is really good. If it dies, why not try it?

[islandshark633]

I am sure everyone who ends up with an accidentally dead marlin either eats it or gives it to someone else who will, certainly all the dead ones in Nassau get eaten.

Guy Harvey was implying on the show that the pacific fishermen were killing marlin on purpose to feed the worlds largest consumer of marlin meat - the USA. That was the big surprise to me given how we are all 'supposed' not to kill them here.