White Marlin Mishap

For years, environmentalists have been worried about the overfishing of white marlin. However, studies have shown white marlin populations to be low, but not perilously so. A recent petition to put the white marlin on the endangered species list was even turned down. It turns out that a significant portion of the "population" of white marlin is not white marlin at all, but a newly identified species called a roundscale spearfish, which bears a stunningly close resemblance to their whiter, more marliny brethren.

These elderly gentlemen might not be so smiley if they knew that they were contributing to the destruction of a species. Who am I kidding, all three of them are drunk.


The truth is that only a highly trained eye or a geneticist can tell the difference between the two species. Unfortunately for the fish, most commercial and recreational white marlin fisherman have neither the desire to calculate
the ratio of the distance of the animal's urogential opening from the anal fin to the height of that fin nor access to a state-of-the-art crime lab.


White marlin--seen here in full "attack mode"-- subsist on a diet of mostly seagull.

More like this

tags: researchblogging.org, bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, fishing, fishery, overfishing, sushi Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus thynnus. Orphaned image [larger image]. The western Atlantic Bluefin Tuna fishery in the Gulf of Maine is in danger of collapse, according to University of New Hampshire (UNH)…
We don't mention it often, but Craig and I publish regularly outside Deep Sea News, in the public arena of peer-reviewed scientific literature. Craig authors ~3 scientific journal articles per year since 2004. I author ~2/yr. The last two years were above average for both of us. This is amazing to…
Plenty of fuss has been made in the past few weeks over a New York Times investigation into the health risks of eating sushi, with tuna, and more specifically, bluefin tuna, painted as the biggest villan. The problem is the level of mercury in the fish, and mercury is a nasty neurotoxin. The fuss…
tags: slow loris, endangered species, conservation, CITES The Slow Loris, from the genus Nycticebus, is a nocturnal animal endemic to Asia. This animal's cuteness could very well be its undoing. Image: Anna Nekaris, Oxford Brookes University, UK. Aww, isn't this cuddly little creature simply…