#billfish

[kannagar]

Bad day for logs.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Fish video about one cool group of speedy apex predators!! :]

Ultra Bra’s Heppa (song in the video) is unfortunately not really about billfish, but horses — I had to change the lyrics a bit.

[zt2cans]

managed to finally update the design of the Pierxiphist!

[wolfraven-creations]

One of my favorite fish is a sailfish! So I painted one with the stippling technique.

Available on redbubble too!

[randomanimaloftheday]

Day 295#: Striped Marlin

Today's animal of the day is the Striped Marlin (Kajikia audax)!

Photo credit: Kellon Spencer

This species of marlin can be found in tropical and temperate oceans around the world. On average, these giant fish grow to around 9.5 ft in length, but some exceptionally large individuals have been measured to be around 13.8 ft long! Females, on average, tend to be a bit larger than males. As their name suggests, these large predatory fish have a series of stripes that run down their bodies. They actually possess special cells that can contract and expand in order to change the stripes from a bluish color to a purplish one when they are excited.

Photo credit: Xavier Rufray

Striped marlins are epipelagic, meaning that they live a good distance away from the shore in the open ocean, but stick close to the surface of the water. Like the Atlantic blue marlin, which I covered on day 164#, these fish are apex predators and use their long, sharp bills to slice and stun prey. Their favorite prey seems to be sardines, though they've also been observed hunting mackerel, small tunas, and various species of squid. The streamlined bodies and powerful tails of these marlins allow them to reach speeds of over 50 mph! Meanwhile, their fins and sails help them to steer and make incredibly sharp turns while chasing after prey.

Photo credit: laurreid on iNaturalist

Sadly, due to their impressive size, speed, and ability to leap high out of the water, the striped marlin has become quite popular with sports fishermen, both for the thrill of the hunt and their meat. While this species is currently considered of least concern by the IUCN, billfish populations around the world have begun to rapidly decline due to overfishing. Thankfully, at least in the United States, this species is protected by the Billfish Conservation Act of 2012, which prohibits the possession or sale of billfish and/or products made from them. The only places exempt from this law are Hawaii and other Pacific Insular Vessels. Unfortunately, this ban has not stopped this species from becoming scarce in other parts of the world, such as the Western and Central North regions of the Pacific Ocean.

[miuuee]

Men in labcoats and testtubes with steam

[alphynix]

Hemingwaya sarissa here was one of the earliest known billfish, related to modern sailfish and marlin. Living during the late Paleocene, about 58 million years ago, it inhabited the area around what is now Turkmenistan, in the warm shallow waters of the western Tethys Sea that covered much of central Asia at the time.

It was rather small compared to its modern relatives, just 30-40cm in length (~1'-1'4"), with a long streamlined body armored with six rows of scutes. Its slender snout was lined with tiny teeth, and both its first dorsal fin and first anal fin were tall and elongated. 

It probably wasn't a very active swimmer, instead hovering near the surface and catching smaller prey with quick bursts of speed.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

[antiqueanimals]

Marlin, Frank Stick. Wildlife in North Carolina. September 1981.

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