A study conducted off the coast of Bermuda two years ago has been credited with boosting international protection for white and blue marlins.

The study concluded that eight of nine marlins inadvertently hooked on fishing lines intended for tuna and other big game fish, will survive if unhooked and released back into the ocean.

Marlin numbers have declined dramatically in recent years.

The fish - made famous in Ernest Hemingway's novel `The Old Man and The Sea' - get in the way of long lines of steel hooks meant for other fish and often die because of it. But one of scientists who lead the study, Dr. John Graves of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, admitted last week that the positive step to protect the beautiful billfish was as much a result of luck and timing as science.

Dr. Graves told the Norfolk Virginian Pilot newspaper how an off-hand comment made during a international fishing conference turned crucial support to initiatives to promote releasing the fish from the hooks.

Americans had been promoting the idea for years but faced strong resistance from the Japanese delegation which claimed there was no research to support claims the fish could survive once caught.

The convention took place shortly after Dr. Graves and colleagues conducted their local fieldwork, showing most of the fish would live if released quickly.

"So I jumped into the conversation and said, `Wait a minute, we've just completed this study', and I told them the results," he told the Pilot. "And the next thing I knew, the Japanese said `OK, we'll try it'. And that was that."

Later that year 31 nations agreed to abide by the landmark marlin-release requirement, which reversed the once-common practice of fishermen simply keeping stray marlins, which later were sold or bartered in port.

"We just happened to be in the right room with the right people," Dr. Graves told the Pilot. "But that's how it works sometimes. It's not very scientific, but that's reality."

The marlin-release requirement was renewed this November at a follow-up convention in Spain.

It is expected to help countries toward the goal of reducing landings of blue marlin by 50 percent and white marlin by 67 percent.

The mandate will remain in effect until at least 2005.

According to the article in the Pilot, the white marlin is facing greater threats than its larger relatives.

The smallest of the marlin family, whites, are found only in the Atlantic and can grow up to nine feet long.

"They are typically smaller, though, weighing about 70 pounds; the world-record catch is 181 pounds," the article said.

"According to the most recent estimate, the population of white marlins is about 200,000."

That number is higher than originally thought but low enough to cause concern among conservationists - who fear it may be at risk of extinction.

An environmental group petitioned the US government earlier this year to declare the white marlin a threatened fish needing protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The sportfishing community protested, claiming the move could put them out of business but Dr. Graves and five other experts selected to evaluate the proposal decided it was unnecessary.

According to the article, Americans account for only four percent of white marlin losses as most are killed by longline fishing fleets from nations such as Brazil, Cuba, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

"So putting the marlin off limits to American sportsmen and fishermen would do little for the species while slamming shut a multimillion-dollar enterprise," the story said.

Selling white marlin is already prohibited and Dr. Graves and a post-graduate student, Jan McDowell, have developed a DNA "finger-printing'' method to tell whether a market fillet is from a white marlin, a blue marlin, a sailfish or a different species that can be legally caught and sold, the article said.

According to the article, Dr. Graves' next mission is to attempt to reform billfish tournaments so fewer white marlins are inadvertently killed.

Simply changing the tackle used to catch the fish could go along way toward protection, he said.

Circle hooks do far less internal harm to a white marlin than traditional J-hooks.

Blue marlins can survive a J-hook but the whites are less hardy.

But Graves caught and satellite-tagged six white marlins of Venezuela to see how they would fare with after release from circle hooks.

Ten days after they were freed, the marlins were all still alive, his data showed. "There wasn't a drop of blood on them,'' Graves told The Pilot. "They fought like crazy, but they didn't bleed. I think that's the key here."