The Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) is a species of marlin endemic to the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic blue marlin (hereafter, marlin) feeds on a wide variety of organisms near the surface. It uses its bill to stun, injure, or kill while knifing through a school of prey, then returns to eat. Marlin is a popular game fish. The relatively high fat content of its meat makes it commercially valuable in certain markets.
Marlin are distributed throughout the Atlantic's tropical and temperate waters, most populously in the western parts. It is a blue water fish that spends the majority of its life in the open sea far from land. Females can grow up to four times the weight of males. The maximum published weight is 818 kg (1,800 lb) and length 5 m (16.4 ft). Marlin have few predators apart from man; the IUCN currently consider it a threatened species due to overfishing.
Some other historic English names for the Atlantic blue marlin are the Cuban black marlin, ocean gar, and ocean guard.
Read more about Atlantic Blue Marlin: Taxonomy and Naming, Physical Description, Range and Migration, Predators and Parasites, Life Cycle, Economic Importance, Conservation, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words atlantic and/or blue:
“The battle of the North Atlantic is a grim business, and it isn’t going to be won by charm and personality.”
—Edmund H. North, British screenwriter, and Lewis Gilbert. First Sea Lord (Laurence Naismith)
“So here they are, the dog-faced soldiers, the regulars, the fifty-cents-a-day professionals riding the outposts of the nation, from Fort Reno to Fort Apache, from Sheridan to Stark. They were all the same. Men in dirty-shirt blue and only a cold page in the history books to mark their passing. But wherever they rode and whatever they fought for, that place became the United States.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)