Marlin (fish) : Marlins, also called marlins (Scientific name: Billfish), form a family of saltwater fish belonging to the order Perciformes. It includes five genera and eleven species. They are found in all the seas tropical and subtropics of the planet. Their speed and size have made them fish highly sought after for deep-sea sport fishing.
Description and characteristics of the marlin: These fish are characterized by a slender waist and a long, fine rostrum (but shorter than that of the swordfish). This rostrum results from the fusion of the premaxillary and nasal bones and their lengthening. These fish, however, have teeth.
The pelvic fins are very fine, and the dorsal very long, sometimes high and forming a "sail" (in Istiophorus).
Their height reaches 4 m, and their weight is 900 kg.
Females can weigh up to four times the weight of males. The largest recorded female weighed 818 kilograms for a total length of 5 meters.
The adult marlin has few predators except humans.
Risks of confusion: Warning: do not confuse the members of this family and theespadon, Xiphias gladius (with a much longer snout and a shorter dorsal fin), which belongs to the Xiphiidae family. Thus, despite an error in the first French edition, it is indeed a marlin and not a swordfish that is hunted in The old Man and the Sea by the American novelist Ernest Hegmingway (1899 – 1961).
In English, " billfish refers to marlin and swordfish.
Anatomy of the marlin: Its skeleton and its rostrum evoke those of the swordfish but these two fish are very different for others of their physical characteristics.
Thus the skin of marlins differs greatly from that of swordfish: the skin of adult marlins has small V-shaped protuberances (bone scales). That of the adult swordfish is on the contrary smooth (its scales are buried without the dermis);
It was once assumed that the protrusions adorning the marlin's skin could reduce its hydrodynamic drag, but a study concluded that no: the friction between the skin and the water is not reduced by these reliefs, whereas those of the skin of the shark effectively reduce the friction of the swimming animal (up to 8%).
It has also been assumed that the skin of the marlin could play the role of a dynamic damping system, a trap for the air in the protective armor skin against certain attacks, but this has not been confirmed.
The rostrum of this fish is also of a size and shape rare in the animal world. It was supposed that it could help the fish to gain speed by reducing the drag, but the benefit according to tests done in the wind tunnel (with more or less long false rostrums) would seem nil or very minimal (a few percent of improved drag at best.
Some underwater videos show that fish hunted in dense schools are sometimes impaled by the rostra, but perhaps accidentally.
Culinary uses of marlin : Due to the relatively high content of fat of his chair, it is of particular commercial interest in certain markets.
En Food the marlin knows all the preparations of theespadon.