was horrified to learn he could have tagged and released it.

Mr. Jeffrey Jackson said the charter captain never told him of the Island's release programme.

He chose to have the fish mounted, he said, because he thought the only alternative was to have the big fish sold to a restaurant like the other fish caught during the trip.

Instead, he said, an article in yesterday's newspaper made him look like a villain.

Both the charter company and the Department of Tourism were quoted as saying they wished Mr. Jackson had released the 12-foot fish, while the article described the success of the bill fish conservation programme.

"I feel I was really used in this one,'' Mr. Jackson said. "We had no idea.

This is horrible. This was a great experience for us, and we had a great time down here. Now we feel awful. Something is really wrong here. I don't know who is to blame -- but it's not us.

"Everybody on the Island has been great, and then to be stabbed in the back like this is just unfair. We were never informed about the programme.'' Capt. Russell Young of the Sea Wolfe insisted yesterday that Mr. Jackson and his wife Carol had been given the choice of releasing the 12-foot fish.

Deciding to have Monday's blue marlin mounted, at a cost of $1,500 to $1,800, "is nothing to be ashamed of,'' he said.

Only small portions of the fish are actually used in modern mounting process, he said, and the rest of it will be used to chum for tuna. The first marlin of the season is typically used for this purpose, he said.

Capt. Young said Japanese, American and Korean long-line fishing boats are the major marlin killers, and any fish killed through local game fishing is irrelevant in comparison.

But Capt. Young said he always gives customers the option of having a marlin tagged and set free. The fact that only about three of his boat's 23 marlin catches last year were killed attests to that fact, he said.

That the Jacksons caught their fish the same week the success of the release programme was publicised was "bad timing,'' he said. "It's not their fault.'' But yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson insisted they were not given the option of releasing their big fish.

They were asked to decide if they wanted it mounted before they had even seen the fish, they said. They said they didn't even know where they would put a mounted marlin.

Tagging and releasing the fish was the perfect solution, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson said, if only they knew they had the choice.

"I think it's a great programme and I think the Board of Tourism is doing the right thing,'' Mr. Jackson said. "But we had no idea. If they are going to promote this, they have an obligation to the guests here on the Island to inform them, instead of opening up the paper and feeling that you have done this awful thing.'' Mr. and Mrs. Jackson arrived in Bermuda on May 11 and return to Vermont this morning.

"We were riding a high until we opened the paper this morning,'' Mr. Jackson said. "We just feel like leaving now. We've been down here on our honeymoon.

We have been having a great time.

"To spend 10 or 11 days here and have a great time and really love and enjoy the Island, and then leave with such a sour taste in our mouths, is unfortunate for everybody.

"There's a flaw in the system somewhere.'' Mrs. Jackson added: "We've had a wonderful trip, and we thought what we had done is something that was special, in terms of catching the first blue marlin.'' Now, she said, "we are sitting in our hotel room and we don't even want to go out of it...we feel like victims.''