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The sailfish is one or two species of marine fish in the genus ''Istiophorus'', which belong to the family Istiophoridae ( marlins). They are predominantly blue to gray in colour and have a characteristically large dorsal fin known as the
Sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus.
' Australian Museum. Retrieved 26 April 2013. No differences have been found in mtDNA, morphometrics or meristics between the two supposed species and most authorities now only recognize a single species, ''Istiophorus platypterus'', found in warmer oceans around the world.Gardieff, S:
Sailfish.
' Florida Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
"Not so fast: swimming behavior of sailfish during predator–prey interactions using high-speed video and accelerometry"
''Integrative and Comparative Biology'' 55: 718-727.Svendsen MBS, Domenici P, Marras S, Krause J, Boswell KM, Rodriguez-Pinto I, Wilson ADM, Kurvers RHJM, Viblanc PE, Finger JS & Steffensen JF (2016
"Maximum swimming speeds of sailfish and other large marine predatory fish species based on muscle contraction time: A myth revisited"
''Biology Open'', 5: 1415-1419. Generally, sailfish do not grow to more than in length and rarely weigh over . Some sources indicate that sailfish are capable of changing colours as a method of confusing prey, displaying emotion, and/or communicating with other sailfish. Sailfish have been documented attacking humans in self-defense; a sailfish stabbed a woman in the groin when her party tried to catch it.
"How sailfish use their bill to capture schooling prey"
''Proceedings of the Royal Society London B'', 281: 20140444. The sail is normally kept folded down when swimming and only raised when the sailfish attack their prey. The raised sail has been shown to reduce sideways oscillations of the head, which is likely to make the bill less detectable by prey fish. This strategy allows sailfish to put their bills close to fish schools or even into them without being noticed by the prey before hitting them. Sailfish usually attack one at a time, and the small teeth on their bills inflict injuries on their prey fish in terms of scale and tissue removal. Typically, about two prey fish are injured during a sailfish attack, but only 24% of attacks result in capture. As a result, injured fish increase in number over time in a fish school under attack. Given that injured fish are easier to catch, sailfish benefit from the attacks of their conspecifics but only up to a particular group size.Herbert-Read JE, Romanczuk P, Krause S, Strömbom D, Couillaud P, Domenici P, Kurvers RHJM, Marras S, Steffensen JF, Wilson ADM & Krause J (2016
"Group hunting sailfish alternate their attacks on their grouping prey to facilitate hunting success"
''Proceedings of the Royal Society London B'', 283: 20161671. A mathematical model showed that sailfish in groups of up to 70 individuals should gain benefits in this way. The underlying mechanism was termed protoco-operation because it does not require any spatial co-ordination of attacks and could be a precursor to more complex forms of group hunting. The bill movement of sailfish during attacks on fish is usually either to the left or to the right side. Identification of individual sailfish based on the shape of their dorsal fins identified individual preferences for hitting to the right or left side. The strength of this side preference was positively correlated with capture success.Kurvers RHJM, Krause S, Viblanc PE, Herbert-Read JE, Zalansky P, Domenici P, Marras S, Steffensen JF, Wilson ADM, Couillaud P & Krause J (2017
"The evolution of lateralisation in group hunting sailfish"
''Current Biology''. These side-preferences are believed to be a form of behavioural specialization that improves performance. However, a possibility exists that sailfish with strong side preferences could become predictable to their prey because fish could learn after repeated interactions in which direction the predator will hit. Given that individuals with right- and left-sided preferences are about equally frequent in sailfish populations, living in groups possibly offers a way out of this predictability. The larger the sailfish group, the greater the possibility that individuals with right- and left-sided preferences are about equally frequent. Therefore, prey fish should find it hard to predict in which direction the next attack will take place. Taken together, these results suggest a potential novel benefit of group hunting which allows individual predators to specialize in their hunting strategy without becoming predictable to their prey. The injuries that sailfish inflict on their prey appear to reduce their swimming speeds, with injured fish being more frequently found in the back (compared with the front) of the school than uninjured ones. When a sardine school is approached by a sailfish, the sardines usually turn away and flee in the opposite direction. As a result, the sailfish usually attacks sardine schools from behind, putting at risk those fish that are the rear of the school because of their reduced swimming speeds.Krause J and Ruxton GD (2002
''Living in Groups''
Oxford University Press.
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''Ken Schultz's Field Guide to Saltwater Fish''
pp. 162–163, John Wiley & Sons. .
story on sailfish
{{Taxonbar, from=Q127497 Istiophorus Extant Paleogene first appearances
The sailfish is one or two species of marine fish in the genus ''Istiophorus'', which belong to the family Istiophoridae ( marlins). They are predominantly blue to gray in colour and have a characteristically large dorsal fin known as the sail
A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may ...
, which often stretches the entire length of the back. Another notable characteristic is the elongated rostrum (bill) consistent with that of other marlins and the swordfish
Swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordfis ...
, which together constitute what are known as billfish in sport fishing circles. Sailfish live in colder pelagic waters of all Earth's oceans, and hold the record for the highest speed of any marine animal.
Species
Two sailfish species have been recognized.McGrouther, M. (2013).Sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus.
' Australian Museum. Retrieved 26 April 2013. No differences have been found in mtDNA, morphometrics or meristics between the two supposed species and most authorities now only recognize a single species, ''Istiophorus platypterus'', found in warmer oceans around the world.Gardieff, S:
Sailfish.
' Florida Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
FishBase
FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.
continues to recognize two species:
* Atlantic sailfish (''I. albicans'').
* Indo-Pacific sailfish (''I. platypterus'').
Description
Considered by many scientists the fastest fish in the ocean, sailfish grow quickly, reaching in length in a single year, and feed on the surface or at middle depths on smaller pelagic forage fish andsquid
True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...
. Sailfish were previously estimated to reach maximum swimming speeds of , but research published in 2015 and 2016 indicate sailfish do not exceed speeds between . During predator–prey interactions, sailfish reached burst speeds of and did not surpass .Marras S, Noda T, Steffensen JF, Svendsen MBS, Krause J, Wilson ADM, Kurvers RHJM, Herbert-Read J & Domenic P 2015"Not so fast: swimming behavior of sailfish during predator–prey interactions using high-speed video and accelerometry"
''Integrative and Comparative Biology'' 55: 718-727.Svendsen MBS, Domenici P, Marras S, Krause J, Boswell KM, Rodriguez-Pinto I, Wilson ADM, Kurvers RHJM, Viblanc PE, Finger JS & Steffensen JF (2016
"Maximum swimming speeds of sailfish and other large marine predatory fish species based on muscle contraction time: A myth revisited"
''Biology Open'', 5: 1415-1419. Generally, sailfish do not grow to more than in length and rarely weigh over . Some sources indicate that sailfish are capable of changing colours as a method of confusing prey, displaying emotion, and/or communicating with other sailfish. Sailfish have been documented attacking humans in self-defense; a sailfish stabbed a woman in the groin when her party tried to catch it.
Hunting behaviour
Sailfish have been reported to use their bills for hitting schooling fish by tapping (short-range movement) or slashing (horizontal large-range movement) at them.Domenici P, Wilson ADM, Kurvers RHJM, Marras S, Herbert-Read JE, Steffensen JF, Krause S, Viblanc PE, Couillaud P & Krause J (2014"How sailfish use their bill to capture schooling prey"
''Proceedings of the Royal Society London B'', 281: 20140444. The sail is normally kept folded down when swimming and only raised when the sailfish attack their prey. The raised sail has been shown to reduce sideways oscillations of the head, which is likely to make the bill less detectable by prey fish. This strategy allows sailfish to put their bills close to fish schools or even into them without being noticed by the prey before hitting them. Sailfish usually attack one at a time, and the small teeth on their bills inflict injuries on their prey fish in terms of scale and tissue removal. Typically, about two prey fish are injured during a sailfish attack, but only 24% of attacks result in capture. As a result, injured fish increase in number over time in a fish school under attack. Given that injured fish are easier to catch, sailfish benefit from the attacks of their conspecifics but only up to a particular group size.Herbert-Read JE, Romanczuk P, Krause S, Strömbom D, Couillaud P, Domenici P, Kurvers RHJM, Marras S, Steffensen JF, Wilson ADM & Krause J (2016
"Group hunting sailfish alternate their attacks on their grouping prey to facilitate hunting success"
''Proceedings of the Royal Society London B'', 283: 20161671. A mathematical model showed that sailfish in groups of up to 70 individuals should gain benefits in this way. The underlying mechanism was termed protoco-operation because it does not require any spatial co-ordination of attacks and could be a precursor to more complex forms of group hunting. The bill movement of sailfish during attacks on fish is usually either to the left or to the right side. Identification of individual sailfish based on the shape of their dorsal fins identified individual preferences for hitting to the right or left side. The strength of this side preference was positively correlated with capture success.Kurvers RHJM, Krause S, Viblanc PE, Herbert-Read JE, Zalansky P, Domenici P, Marras S, Steffensen JF, Wilson ADM, Couillaud P & Krause J (2017
"The evolution of lateralisation in group hunting sailfish"
''Current Biology''. These side-preferences are believed to be a form of behavioural specialization that improves performance. However, a possibility exists that sailfish with strong side preferences could become predictable to their prey because fish could learn after repeated interactions in which direction the predator will hit. Given that individuals with right- and left-sided preferences are about equally frequent in sailfish populations, living in groups possibly offers a way out of this predictability. The larger the sailfish group, the greater the possibility that individuals with right- and left-sided preferences are about equally frequent. Therefore, prey fish should find it hard to predict in which direction the next attack will take place. Taken together, these results suggest a potential novel benefit of group hunting which allows individual predators to specialize in their hunting strategy without becoming predictable to their prey. The injuries that sailfish inflict on their prey appear to reduce their swimming speeds, with injured fish being more frequently found in the back (compared with the front) of the school than uninjured ones. When a sardine school is approached by a sailfish, the sardines usually turn away and flee in the opposite direction. As a result, the sailfish usually attacks sardine schools from behind, putting at risk those fish that are the rear of the school because of their reduced swimming speeds.Krause J and Ruxton GD (2002
''Living in Groups''
Oxford University Press.
Habitat
The sailfish is an epipelagic and oceanic species and shows a strong tendency to approach continental coasts, islands and reefs tropical and temperate waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Sailfish in some areas are reliant on coral reefs as areas for feeding and breeding. As witnessed in the Persian Gulf, the disappearance of coral reefs in a sailfish's habitat may be followed by the disappearance of the species from that area.Predators
When freshly hatched, sailfish are hunted by other fishes that mainly survive on eating plankton. The size of their predators increases as they grow, and adult sailfish are not eaten by anything other than larger predatory fish like open ocean shark species, orcas and dolphinfish.Timeline
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text: Miocene
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist.
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H.
bar:eratop
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.
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color:eocene bar:NAM1 from: -55.8 till: 0 text: Pseudohistiophorus
color:miocene bar:NAM2 from: -23.03 till: 0 text: Tetrapterus
''Tetrapterus'' (from el, τετρα , 'four' and el, πτερόν 'wing') is an extinct genus of prehistoric perciform fish.
See also
* Prehistoric fish
The evolution of fish began about 530 million years ago during the Cambrian expl ...
color:miocene bar:NAM3 from: -15.97 till: 0 text: Istiophorus
color:miocene bar:NAM4 from: -11.608 till: 0 text: Makaira
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from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text: Paleocene
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text: Eocene
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text: Miocene
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist.
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H.
bar:era
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.
References
* Schultz, Ken (2003''Ken Schultz's Field Guide to Saltwater Fish''
pp. 162–163, John Wiley & Sons. .
External links
''National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
'story on sailfish
{{Taxonbar, from=Q127497 Istiophorus Extant Paleogene first appearances