Sunday - 8 PM on PBS - KCTS Seattle, WA

Sushihunter

Active Member
A quick heads up.

Nature will be airing a show on Bill Fish. The previews look pretty good.

Sunday at 8 PM on PBS - KCTS in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/superfish/index.html

NATURE presents the world's greatest gamefish in the open sea in Superfish, premiering May 4.

Share your Super Sea Stories with NATURE, and tell the world what you think is worth preserving.

MISSION: SUPERFISH

Marine biologist and award-winning filmmaker Rick Rosenthal set out to capture on film the biggest, fastest, most dangerous gamefish in the sea -- the ancient creatures known as billfish.

The largest of all billfish is the marlin. They top speeds of 60 miles an hour on migrations that can span 9,000 miles. The largest, always female, weigh in at over 1,000 pounds, and are known as "granders." Ernest Hemingway immortalized the grander in The Old Man and the Sea, the story of an elderly fisherman locked in a life and death struggle with this apex predator. To Hemingway's great disappointment, he himself never landed a grander, although his novella captures the impact of this huge and graceful creature.

Rosenthal's pursuit of these exotic fish unfolds in NATURE's Superfish. Two years in the making, Rosenthal's documentary travels to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as well as the Caribbean Sea in pursuit of these giants of the deep. In one extraordinary scene, off Australia's Cape York Peninsula, Rosenthal is shown swimming with a stunning giant female marlin and two courting males.

Throughout his journey, Rosenthal encounters commercial fisherman, anglers, and researchers, who are also out looking for billfish. The search has become increasingly difficult for everyone due to over-fishing of billfish and their prey, as well as the environmental degradation of the oceans, which has resulted in a dramatic decline in their populations. The trajectory of population decline in all large fish has been precipitously steep, estimated at 90 percent within the last half century.

In the 1950's, sports fishermen -- like those who flocked to Cabo Blanco, Peru in the heyday of "Marlin Boulevard" -- were known for testing themselves against marlin with rods and reels. Today, some fisherman are defending billfish against commercial fishing fleets that, while going after the seafood we eat, kill these increasingly rare sport fish in their nets as so called accidental by-catch. In major part because of the absence of regulations that limit such by-catch, marlin and other billfish populations continue to decline. In the case of marlin, some anglers, frustrated with governmental inaction, have pressed for local bans on the sale of such fish, and have sought commitments from local restaurants not to serve marlin.

Rosenthal's difficult quest to encounter a giant marlin in the wild, rewarded by his exceptional footage of this fabulous creature, not only offers a rare aesthetic and learning experience for viewers but may serve to awaken people to the need to preserve these remarkable billfish in their native habitats.

Watch the premiere of Superfish Sunday, May 4 at 8 pm ET on PBS (check local listings).

Behind-the-Scenes Podcast: Rick Rosenthal explains the challenges of finding and filming billfish as their populations decline. Subscribe on iTunes or watch online now.

View the Production Credits.
 
quote:Originally posted by islanderguy

Thanks for the heads up Sushihunter....it's on channel 204 on the HD Shaw box for those who want to set their PVR.


Thanks ! will do !
 
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quote:Originally posted by islanderguy

Thanks for the heads up Sushihunter....it's on channel 204 on the HD Shaw box for those who want to set their PVR.

You are most welcome.

I managed to record the show to DVD via my computer - turned out not bad considering it looks horible on the computer, but good on the TV. Eats up a lot of disk space on the old hard drive.

Great show. Swimming with a 900+ pound Marlin - way cool [8D]

Almost forgot - you can order an original DVD from PBS for about $20
 
quote:Originally posted by islanderguy

Thanks for the heads up Sushihunter....it's on channel 204 on the HD Shaw box for those who want to set their PVR.

You are most welcome.

I managed to record the show to DVD via my computer - turned out not bad considering it looks horible on the computer, but good on the TV. Eats up a lot of disk space on the old hard drive.

Great show. Swimming with a 900+ pound Marlin - way cool [8D]

Almost forgot - you can order an original DVD from PBS for about $20
 
I recorded it as well. I use a PVR program called SageTV. It's the only way I watch TV now. I can play it back on my regular Television or a PC or even when connected to the Internet. Playback on a TV is excellent quality -- same as watching the show. The single best feature of the program is the free commercial skipping application that can be added in. For DVD quality recording it uses about 3Gb of storage per hour of recording.
 
I recorded it as well. I use a PVR program called SageTV. It's the only way I watch TV now. I can play it back on my regular Television or a PC or even when connected to the Internet. Playback on a TV is excellent quality -- same as watching the show. The single best feature of the program is the free commercial skipping application that can be added in. For DVD quality recording it uses about 3Gb of storage per hour of recording.
 
I won't take credit for actually being on the rod, but was on a
trip about 20years ago off the coast of Acapulco for sailfish.
The boat had 4 or 5 sailfish on the trip, they ranged from about
6-8 feet in length , good fighters.
Released most, captain wanted one to take back.
My turn on the rod, i got to wind in an 8 lb tuna [:I]
 
I won't take credit for actually being on the rod, but was on a
trip about 20years ago off the coast of Acapulco for sailfish.
The boat had 4 or 5 sailfish on the trip, they ranged from about
6-8 feet in length , good fighters.
Released most, captain wanted one to take back.
My turn on the rod, i got to wind in an 8 lb tuna [:I]
 
130 lb Marlin in Hawaii.
I was impressed :Dbut the captain concidered it small[:I].

Was on board for a sailfin in Mexico but my turn did not come up.

With the winch they call a reel and the other heavy duty gear it was not as exciting as catching a tyee on my personal gear.

Tips
 
quote:Originally posted by Dogbreath

So how many of you guys have actually caught a Billfish?

What kind?

Stripped marlin off the Baha in the open panga's...what a hoot!
they averaged from 100 to 140lbs on 50 lb gear and were a great fight. They jump like crazy and put on a heck of a boat side show at the end. $250 for the day spilt between 2 guys was a bargain. Over 3 days i caught 7 or 8 and lots of tuna and dorado for the cooler
 
Seen the show. It's great, but just another sad reflection on man's greed and inept attempt at conserving future fish stocks.
 
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