Atlantic blue marlin
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| Atlantic blue marlin | ||||||||||||||
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| Makaira nigricans Lacépède, 1802 |
The Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) is a species of marlin.
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[edit] Physical description
The Atlantic blue marlin's body is blue-black above, with a silvery white underside. It has two dorsal fins and two anal fins. Its first anal fin, along with its pectoral and caudal fins, can be folded down into grooves for better streamlining. It has a long, stout bill. Males rarely exceed 160 kg (353 lb) in weight, and females will commonly weigh over 540 kg (1190 lb).[1]
[edit] Feeding habits
Atlantic blue marlins primarily feed on a wide range of fish (such as Bigeye tuna and Chub mackerel) and cephalopods (such as Southern shortfin squid). They tend to attack schools of fish or invertebrates near the surface of the water, although they will often feed near the bottom. They will swim through the schools at high speeds, slashing at fish with their bills, and then come back to eat the dead or stunned ones.[1]
[edit] Reproduction
The sexual maturity of Atlantic blue marlins is reached at two to four years. The breeding season in the Atlantic Ocean is in part of summer and fall. In the Pacific the breeding season is in December and January. Females may spawn as many as four times in one season. Atlantic blue marlins have planktonic young. Females may release well over seven million eggs at once, each being around 1 mm in diameter. The young may grow as much as 16 mm in a day. Males may live for 18 years, and females as many as 27.[1]
The status of the Indo-Pacific blue marlin (Makaira mazara) as a separate species is subject to some debate, although recent genetic data supports the existence of a single species,[2] albeit one with "striking phylogeographic partitioning" of mitochondrial and microsatellite loci.[3]
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- It is a popular game fish with a maximum published weight of 820 kg (1,800 lb) and a maximum total length of 5 m (16 ft 3 in).
- It is one of the largest bony fish species in the world.
- It is one the world's most aggressive fish.
- The blue marlin is one of the fastest fish reaching speeds of about 50 mph (80 km/h).
- The Atlantic blue marlin is the national fish of The Bahamas.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Animal diversity web; Accessed 7/25/07
- ^ Molecular Insights Into the Population Structures of Cosmopolitan Marine Fishes J. E. Graves (1998) Journal of Heredity p.429
- ^ Reconciling patterns of inter-ocean molecular variance from four classes of molecular markers in blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) V. P. Buonaccorsi, J. R. Mcdowell & J. E. Graves (2001) Molecular Ecology 10 Pages 1179-1196
- "Makaira nigricans". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. August 2007 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2007.
- Makaira nigricans (TSN 172491). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved on 30 January 2006.
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