Blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) has a distinctive basking behavior at the surface in the daytime which make them vulnerable to the local harpoon fishery. For research purposes, the basking behavior and existence of a harpoon fishery provide an excellent opportunity to deploy pop-up archival satellite tags (PSATs) to learn of their horizontal and vertical movement patterns. PSATs were used to study the movement patterns and habitat preference of 3 blue marlins tagged in eastern Taiwan in January and February 2010. The three blue marlins were tagged using the harpoon method, two (BUM I, II) migrated southeasterly over the course of one month, these PSATs released prematurely after periods ranging about 18 to 37 d, however the third tag (BUM III) has “popped off” on its programmed date, 240 days after deployment, in the East China Sea. Pooled archival data (BUM I, II) transmitted from the PSATs showed that blue marlin spent 65% of their time in the upper uniform mixed layer above 20 m, but made more extensive vertical movements during the daytime (mean = 30.7m, SD = 27.21) than nighttime (mean = 2.8m, SD = 9.15). Diving depth ranged from 0 to 130.5 m and ambient water temperature from 18°C to 31°C. Short-movements for linear displacements ranged from 95 to 405 km from deployment to pop-up locations and all were located around southeastern Taiwan waters. Diel diving patterns also suggested basking behavior which makes them (BUM I, II) particularly vulnerable to surface fishing gear.