Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 933 is my conversation with Elliot Stark, an angler, conservationist, and author who literally wrote the book on travel fishing. We first crossed paths years ago when we caught a tagged sailfish on End of the Blue and Scott Walker connected us through The Billfish Foundation. Since then Elliot has run a mothership operation in Panama and written a worldwide guide to billfish and other species, breaking down not just the fishing but the food, the activities, and where each person should actually go.
Listen now: Megaphone.
Elliot Stark is an angler, conservationist, and author who wrote a book on travel fishing focused on billfish and other species around the world. He has worked extensively with The Billfish Foundation on tagging and recapture programs, run a mothership fishing operation in Panama, and traveled the globe in search of billfish, combining all of it into a guide to the best places to go.
Elliot's book is a worldwide guide to travel fishing, drawing on his own travels to determine the best place to go for each type of angler. Beyond the fishing itself, it covers the food, the activities for non-fishing members of a party, and the realities of each destination, from places where all there is to do is fish to places packed with other things to do.
The Billfish Foundation is one of the world's leaders in billfish tagging and recapture. Elliot worked with the organization on tagging programs, which generate biological data sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service and used by fishery scientists, as well as angler and economic data showing that healthy oceans promote healthy economies.
Elliot describes landmark socioeconomic studies, including one at Cabo San Lucas built on striped marlin and another in Costa Rica, that measured the economic impact of traveling anglers, billions of dollars from hotels, fuel, charters, and restaurants. The work helped show governments that tourism revenue is a direct reflection of healthy fisheries, not just pounds of fish on deck.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 933 with Elliot Stark is available on Megaphone, Spotify, and the Tom Rowland Podcast feed.
I wanted Elliot on because he has done something almost no one else has, he has traveled the world chasing billfish and then put all of it into a book that tells you where to actually go. Our paths first crossed over a tagged sailfish years ago, and since then he has run a mothership in Panama and dug deep into the conservation and economic side of sport fishing. He has a tremendous amount of hard-won experience, and I wanted listeners to benefit from it.
Press play in the player to hear it.
Elliot explains how his book matches each angler to the right place, from spots where all you can do is fish to destinations loaded with activities for the whole family. He breaks down how to choose. Hear it in the episode.
Elliot describes the tagging and recapture work with The Billfish Foundation, including fish that traveled thousands of miles across ocean basins. He explains what the data shows. Listen to that section of the conversation.
Elliot walks through the socioeconomic studies at Cabo San Lucas and in Costa Rica that proved sport fishing's massive economic value. He explains how that changed minds. Press play in the player above.
Elliot ran a big mothership operation and has fished some of the most remote water on earth. He shares what that experience taught him about travel fishing. Worth hearing in full.
Listen to the full conversation: Megaphone.
What I take away from Elliot is that travel fishing is about far more than the fish, it is about the place, the people, and increasingly the case for protecting what makes a destination worth visiting.
If you have ever dreamed about a fishing trip somewhere far away, his book and this conversation are the place to start. Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 933 on Megaphone or Spotify.
Elliot Stark · The Billfish Foundation · Scott Walker · End of the Blue · Cabo San Lucas · Costa Rica · Panama · National Marine Fisheries Service · Tom Rowland (host)
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Elliot Stark is an angler, conservationist, and author who wrote a book on travel fishing covering billfish and other species worldwide. He has worked with The Billfish Foundation on tagging and recapture programs and on socioeconomic studies demonstrating the economic value of sport fishing, run a mothership fishing operation in Panama, and traveled the globe chasing billfish, distilling that experience into a guide to the best fishing destinations for every kind of angler.
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