Miami, FL--The second phase of the Adopt-A-Billfish white marlin tagging study will begin Monday, Sept. 12 on the Southern Caribbean island nation of Aruba, where NOAA scientists will meet with participating local boats before the start of fishing on Tuesday morning. Armed with ten state of the art pop-up satellite tags, these scientists will carefully tag ten white marlin in order to study the fish's behavior and migration patterns.



Each tag is programmed to release itself from the marlin after a pre-determined length of time, after which it sends a significant amount of information to an orbiting satellite where it's downloaded by scientists and compared with other white marlin in the study.



The Aruba leg is the second part of the study. Eleven tags were implanted in white marlin off North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Irene. With the near-simultaneous tagging of these two different groups of white marlin, much is expected to be learned about these acrobatic and highly migratory billfish.



Funding for the Adopt-A-Billfish white marlin tagging program comes directly from the sponsors and anglers of the Presidential Challenge tournament series, including a significant contribution from the Chivas Regal Aruba Caribbean Cup. Each satellite tag costs approximately $4,000 so the investment in tagging off Aruba is considerable. In addition, participating captains and owners donate their valuable boat time while hoteliers contribute lodging for the scientific staff. Without each of these areas, the project would simply not be possible.

The dates for this year's Aruba Caribbean Cup are Oct. 20-23, 2011 and once again, it is expected to be one of the most prestigious events of its kind in the Southern Caribbean. Team entries are still available for any who wish to participate--for more information please visit www.preschallenge.com.