Sailfish is recognized in the world as the fastest fish in the short distance, migrating up to 90km/h in the ocean and 110km/h in short sprints. There are many sea fishing enthusiasts around the world who are obsessed with sailfish, and many people spend thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to conquer this super big fish at the top of the ocean food chain.
Sailfish in the natural sea to squid, sardines, saury, trevally for food, so the meat is delicious, used to make sashimi is also a must, in a domestic trading platform on the price of sailfish 260-280 yuan / kg. A fisherman in Thailand caught a 300-kilogram sailfish and sold it for more than 50,000 yuan, with an average of 167 yuan / catty.
However, as a popular fish species for distant water fishing, the commercial value of sailfish is much higher than that of food. However, whether it is trolling or pulling sailfish is very dangerous, before pulling on the boat must be knocked out with a hammer, otherwise the stressful sailfish will frantically wave the "sword", resulting in many tragic cases. If you want to understand this dangerous big fish, you can start from the following aspects.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >what is a marlin? What is swordfish again? </h1>
The swordfish family is collectively known as marlin, the classification of this family is confused, the domestic encyclopedia divides it into 3 genera, while Wikipedia divides it into 5 genera, namely the genus of sailfish, the genus of four-finned sailfish, the genus of marlin, the genus of red meat sailfish, and the genus of finned sailfish. The "species" of sailfish belongs to the genus Istiophorus albicans, commonly known as The Atlantic sailfish (Istiophorus albicans) and issatus (Istiophorus platypterus), which are active in the water layer at depths of 0-200 m. Another species often compared to swordfish is the swordfish, also known as the swordfish, which is also a large predatory fish and is the only species in the genus Perciformes-Swordfish family, distributed in water layers ranging from 0 to 650 m. The difference in appearance between swordfish and swordfish is shown in the following figure:
▲▲Sailfish family - Sailfish genus - Umbrella sailfish (dorsal fin cloak)
▲▲Swordfish family - Swordfish genus - Swordfish (dorsal fin shape is similar to a triangle)
Therefore, the swordfish and the swordfish are not the same species of fish, the two belong to different families, but both belong to the suborder Mackerel. In fact, whenever a sailfish is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the marlin and the swordfish, and the similarities between the two make it difficult to discuss them separately. Therefore, the "sailfish" mentioned in the title is mainly located in the "mackerel suborder", which refers to swordfish and swordfish, and special instructions are made here.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (sword) sailfish can become the swimming champion in the ocean? </h1>
The fastest animal on land is the cheetah, with a top speed of 130 km/h, which is equivalent to running 36 meters in 1 second, because the cheetah has long legs, thin body, super elastic spine, explosive and bouncing power are amazing. In the ocean world, swordfish are the fastest fish to swim short distances, with a maximum sprint speed of more than 130km/h, which is faster than the 110km/h of sailfish.
▲▲From the above picture, you can feel the amazing speed of the sailfish.
Sailfish are able to become the swimming champion in the ocean world, mainly due to the following three reasons.
The first is the body structure of the sailfish. The sailfish has an elongated and flattened body, a streamlined body, and a snout that acts like a sharp sword, splitting water, thus minimizing the frictional resistance of the seawater.
Secondly, the caudal fin and pectoral fin of the sailfish are hard fin spines, and the dorsal fin will be retracted when launching the sprint, and with the elastic spine, the sailfish sprint is more comfortable.
The sailfish is strong and muscular in its tail, and its explosive power in a short period of time is not inferior to that of the cheetah.
▲▲The sailfish will retract its dorsal fin when sprinting, and the tail muscle will instantly exert force, like a sharp arrow off the string
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > how do sailfish prey? Schools of sardines are just a piece of cake</h1>
With the exception of larger sharks, the sailfish have few natural predators in the ocean and are the top hunters in the ocean, and the sailfish can weigh more than 450 kilograms, like a flexible muscle tank.
The most lethal weapon of the sailfish is the upper jaw at the front of the body. High-speed moving sailfish can use their jaws to pierce the hard shells of sea turtles and the spines of gray mackerel. The London Museum also preserves a wooden bottom of a 50 cm thick boat pierced by the "long sword" of a swordfish, but this is not the most cattle case. The most astonishing record set by the sailfish was to pierce the entire upper jaw into the hull of the Irvine submarine. When the submarine surfaced, the sailfish remained on the hull, and the crew is said to have eaten the sailfish later.
▲ Sword and sailfish on the hull of the "Evan" submarine
When preying on schools of sardines, the sailfish insert their upper jaws into the schools and stir them quickly, with the aim of separating the individual sardines from the school, making it very easy to hunt with a clear goal. Even if separation fails, the sharp upper jaw can cause serious damage to other sardines, which increases the chances of the injured sardines being caught by other sailfish.
The dorsal fin of the umbrella sailfish changes from silvery white to black when hunting, and the raised dorsal fin doubles in size, driving away sardines like cattle and sheep. Marine biologists speculate that this approach may have a greater deterrent to sardine schools, make it easier to control the direction of the fish, and is a fairly clever hunting technique.
▲▲Sailfish for teamwork
In addition to this, the teamwork of sailfish further increases the efficiency of predation. A dozen sailfish joined forces to chase and intercept schools of sardines, leaving the desperate sardines heading upstream, while thousands of warship birds were eyeing them. Marine biologists have also photographed images of marlins feeding in tandem with sea lions, dolphins, tuna, and others, a scene that can only be seen when large schools of bait fish appear.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the whereabouts of the sailfish are mysterious, often appearing at the confluence of ocean currents</h1>
Many of the sailfish in the ocean-going ecosystem can grow to 100-200 kilograms, and such behemoths constantly consume energy every day, which requires the continuous harvesting of a large number of small fish. As a result, sailfish are always frequent in places where bait fish congregate in large numbers – places where ocean currents converge.
The Confluence of the Gulf Of Mexico Current and the Labrador Cold Current forms the Newfoundland Fishery, the Japanese Warm Current and the Kuril Island Cold Current form the Hokkaido Fishery, the North Atlantic Warm Current meets the Cold Water of the Arctic Ocean south to form the North Sea Fishery, and the Peruvian Rising Cold Current from the Antarctic forms the Peruvian Fishery, these large fisheries are the best places to find sailfish.
▲▲ The shaded green area indicates the Peruvian fishery
In the case of Peruvian fisheries, for example, rising ocean currents transport nutrients from the bottom of the seabed to the surface of the sea, allowing plankton to multiply rapidly and small fish and shrimp to accumulate in large numbers. The rich fisheries directly attract predators such as sailfish, tuna, dolphins and frigate birds.
▲▲ A large school of bait fish
▲ Tuna, dolphins, sailfish compete for food, and some big fish can jump out of the sea 2.6-3.3 meters high. Schools of fish are forced to the surface of the sea, and the frigate birds have the opportunity to take advantage of it.
▲▲ On many occasions, the frigate bird will appear at the same time as the sailfish, which is the best guide for finding sailfish, even better than the detector and radar.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the number of sailfish has decreased by 90% over the past 50 years</h1>
Capo Blanco is a famous fishing town in Peru, and the fishing grounds along the coast are filled with the tail fins of giant sailfish, known as the "Marlin Avenue". The famous writer Hemingway stayed here for more than a month before writing "The Old Man and the Sea", accumulating a lot of material for new works. In the novel, Hemingway refers to the big fish caught by the old man as the big marlin, and more specifically the Atlantic blue marlin, which is a large fish of the genus Marlin in the family Sailfish, known as the "blue marlin".
▲▲ Hemingway in Cabo Blanco with the sailfish
In the 1950s, an oil merchant in Texas built a special fishing boat and prepared to go to the fishing grounds of Cabo Blanco. After a difficult tug-of-war, he managed to capture the world's largest sailfish at the time, a 707-kilogram marine giant. But by the 1960s, fishing led to a rapid decline in sailfish populations, and the "Marlin Avenue" of the past was no longer glorious.
Fishermen at the fishery not only catch sailfish, but also catch large quantities of anchovies, sardines and squid, which are the most important food sources for sailfish. To save wild populations of sailfish, scientists have used satellite tags to record the migration paths of sailfish. The largest sailfish with satellite tags is 4 meters long and weighs 204 kilograms. Satellite data shows that the fish swims into the Warm Gulf Stream, and tracking its footprints is likely to reveal new sailfish spawning grounds, which is of great significance for the breeding and protection of wild sailfish.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > can increase weight by 10,000 times from infancy to adulthood</h1>
Although adult swordfish often have a body of hundreds of kilograms, they are quite weak in their infancy, and divers interact with sailfish fry and find that the swimming fry is not as large as the palm of an ordinary adult.
But even so, the young sailfish has two survival weapons: a smooth body, sharp teeth, the former allowing it to quickly catch prey, and the latter increasing the success rate of predation.
Sailfish juveniles
Mature males have a bright body color with irregular longitudinal stripes on the side of the body; females have a relatively dark body color and a wide and fat abdomen. Sailfish have a longer spawning period and vary widely in the northern and southern hemispheres: the spawning season in the southern hemisphere is January and in the northern hemisphere it is from March to July. Females lay 1-3 million eggs each time, but few successfully fertilize and survive.
The diameter of the eggs is less than 2 mm, and the small sailfish that have just hatched out of the membrane are only about 6 mm, but they grow very fast, and after a week they can grow to 10 cm long. This size of sailfish fry also needs to undergo 4-6 years of natural selection, and successfully survive to truly become the dominant ocean overlord.
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