Judging Size Limits on Blue Marlin in the Gulf Coast Triple Crown

The main event in Gulf Coast Triple Crown tournaments is the weighing of giant Blue Marlin at the weigh scales. Blue Marlin have to be a certain size to be killed in these tournaments, also known as the size limit. The size limits in these tournaments however, allow smaller Blue Marlin to be weighed each tournament that will not win any prize money or place on the leader board. Thus, they are wasted. Changing a size limit has implications from a social, economic, and biological standpoint. This project analyzed catch data from the tournaments for the past five years as well as interviews with tournament directors, fishermen, and people of the industry to determine what was the best size limit to reduce waste. The final result is a recommendation for the Gulf Coast Triple Crown Tournament Series on what size limit they should employ in their tournaments going forward that makes sense from an economic, biological, and social aspect.