Fish Fight

CLASHES BETWEEN LOCAL BOATS AND AMERICAN SPORTFISHERMEN IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC COULD HAVE FAR-REACHING RAMIFICATIONS.

- John Brownlee

The blue marlin bite in the Dominican Republic has been red hot the past few years, with more U.S.flagged boats spending the winters there to take advantage of this fishery. The spring white marlin fishing in the DR has been well known for years, but the winter blue marlin encounters constitute a fairly recent development. Boats fishing out of Punta Cana on the east end and Puerto

Plata to the north have experienced many days with double-digit bites, and new single-day release records have fallen repeatedly. This has proven to be arguably the best Atlantic blue marlin fishery in the world in recent years.

Many of these bites came while boats fished around fish aggregating devices (FADS) placed off shore by local captains for commercial fishing purposes. These FADS tend to be of simple construction, often made up of palm fronds and foam blocks, or whatever is handy and will float beneath the surface.

But while the FADS may be simple, they are quite effective at their main mission: attracting bait. The local panga fleet uses the FADS to target dolphin and jacks—prime food staples in temperate waters worldwide.

Savvy skippers quickly learned that blue marlin hang around the FADS as well, and in surprising numbers. These skippers began making passes close to the FADS while trolling, with the aforementioned impressive results. But the proximity of the large American sportfishers to the Dominican artisanal fleet created conflict.