Marlin

history

Marlin, Istiophoridae, is a "billfish." Marlin, also known as Blue-spotted tuna, has an elongated body, a spear-like snout or bill, and a long rigid dorsal fin, which extends forward to form a crest. Its common name is thought to derive from its resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike. Even more so than their close relatives the scombrids, marlin are incredibly fast swimmers, reaching speeds of about . »

, Indonesia|alt=Photo of 8 long-nosed fish on the beach]] The larger species include the Atlantic blue marlin, Makaira nigricans, which can reach in length and in weight, and the Black marlin, Makaira indica, which can reach in excess of in length and in weight. They are popular sporting fish in tropical areas.

Marlin are rarely table fare, appearing mostly in fine restaurants. Most modern sport fishermen release marlin after unhooking. However, the old fisherman in Ernest Hemingway's novella The Old Man and the Sea was described as having caught an 18-foot (5.5 m) marlin to sell its meat.

Very large marlin, which may set a record, are taken and weighed on shore. Records are most often recorded in the IGFA World Record Game Fish books. The current record has stood for some 20 years however; in 1999 a young man named Jason Ott caught a Marlin which was a 1/4 pound shy of the world record. Ott caught the marlin while on a deep sea fishing expedition with Manny Puig of Jackass

Classification

The marlins are perciform fish, most closely related to the swordfish and Scombridae.

Family Istiophoridae

Sustainable consumption

In 2010, Greenpeace International has added the striped marlin, white marlin, atlantic blue marlin, black marlin, and Makara (Indo-pacific blue marlin) to its seafood red list. "The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries."»Greenpeace International Seafood Red list

See also

  • Marlin fishing

References

External links

home | This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. See full license termsIt uses material from the Wikipedia article "Marlin ". | compliance | March 20th 2010