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The African Billfish Foundation (ABF) have continued to develop the East African Billfish Conservation and Research programme over the past two years taking into account those recommendations emphasised at the Working Party on Billfish 10th Session. A total of 8,369 Billfish have been tagged and released and a further 1,086 released without tags over the past three fishing seasons off the coast of East Africa. The African Billfish Foundation has also received 117 Billfish recapture reports during this time. A recent recapture of a Black Marlin off Mandapam, India expanded the recognised international boundaries of Billfish caught off East Africa, with this being ABF’s first billfish recapture off India. In the coming season the ABF, in collaboration with Kenyan sport fishing anglers, hope to compliment the existing data from the conventional tagging programme with the deployment of 5 satellite tags in Marlin. These tags should help yield a greater insight into the movements of Marlin caught in this area. This report reviews data from the year 2000 including data obtained over the last two years, and Tanzanian recaptures. Developments in local education, tagging zone expansion and data collection are addressed. Highlighted within the report are the challenges faced in the conservation and management of the billfish species in East African waters, with a focus on the artisanal fishery. Limitations to recapture data collection are discussed with suggested solutions. As a conclusion the paper reiterates the different ways to address the threats facing the billfish species.
