Marlin

Marlins have elongated bodies, a spear-like snout or bill, and a long, rigid dorsal fin which extends forward to form a crest.

Marlins are among the fastest marine swimmers. However, greatly exaggerated speeds are often claimed in popular literature, based on unreliable or outdated reports.^[3]

The larger species include the

Marlins can change colour, lighting up their stripes just before attacking prey.[6]

Classification

The marlins are

, genetic analysis only shows a slight relationship.

Istiophoriform genera and species

Image	Genus	Living species	Common name
black marlin	Istiompax (Whitley, 1931)	Istiompax indica	black marlin
Atlantic sailfish	Istiophorus (Lacépède, 1801)	I. albicans	Atlantic sailfish
		I. platypterus	Indo-Pacific sailfish
Atlantic blue	Makaira (Lacépède, 1802)	Makaira nigricans (Lacepède, 1802)	Atlantic blue marlin
		Makaira mazara (Jordan & Snyder, 1901)	Indo-Pacific blue marlin
white marlin	Kajikia (Hirasaka & H. Nakamura, 1947)	Poey , 1860)	white marlin
		Kajikia audax (Philippi (Krumweide) , 1887)	striped marlin
longbill	Tetrapturus (Rafinesque, 1810)	Tetrapturus angustirostris (S. Tanaka (I) , 1915)	shortbill spearfish
		Tetrapturus belone (Rafinesque , 1810)	Mediterranean spearfish
		Tetrapturus georgii (R.T. Lowe , 1841)	roundscale spearfish
		C. R. Robins & de Sylva , 1963)	longbill spearfish

Timeline of genera

Popular culture

In the Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway's 1952 novel The Old Man and the Sea, the central character of the work is an aged Cuban fisherman who, after 84 days without success on the water, heads out to sea to break his run of bad luck. On the 85th day, Santiago, the old fisherman, hooks a resolute marlin; what follows is a great struggle between man, sea creature, and the elements.

Frederick Forsyth's story "The Emperor", in the collection No Comebacks, tells of a bank manager named Murgatroyd, who catches a marlin and is acknowledged by the islanders of Mauritius as a master fisherman.

A marlin features prominently in the last chapter and climactic scenes of Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children. Sam's friend Saul gives Sam a marlin, and Sam makes his children help him render the fish's fat.

The Miami Marlins, a professional baseball team based in Miami, Florida, is named after the fish.

See also

• Marlin fishing
• Sailfish

References

Further reading

• Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364: 560. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2005). "Istiophoridae" in FishBase. November 2005 version.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Istiophoridae.

• "Marlin fishing". FishingBooker (blog).
• Melissa Block & John Nielson (radio hosts), Jason Schratwieser (marlin sport fishing expert), Mahmoud Sivji (fish research biologist involved in discovery) (2 March 2007). 'Ghost fish' revelation may alter marlin's status. NPR.org (radio news recording & transcript).
  National Public Radio
  . Retrieved 2023-10-29. — news clip discussing discovery that a look-alike fish has been widely mis-identified as white marlin