Technology has greatly improved since Dr. Guy Harvey jumped in to film free swimming blue marlin in Venezuela more than 20 years ago. He was the first to prove it was possible and since then, many cinematographers have followed suite, capturing feeding behavior for Atlantic sailfish, striped and white marlin. Until now, no one has produced footage of free swimming Pacific Blue marlin.
Film has become an important educational tool to showcase animals only seen in remote parts of the world. Even more so when they face threats of overexploitation.
This year, Dr. Harvey, and the GHOF team worked with legendary Captain Skip Smith and his crew aboard the fishing boat The Hooker during a lucky weather break to capture Pacific blue marlin’s predator prey interaction with teasers. Words cannot describe the incredible colour changes exhibited in fleeting seconds by each individual documented. In addition to blue marlin, the team also documented similar behavior of a Pacific sailfish, and happened upon a pod of cooperative pilot whales. All this and more will be featured in an upcoming GHOF documentary on Pacific ocean wildlife.
