Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
Speaker 1: vogelbom here. One of the coolest looking and most recognizable
Speaker 1: fish in the ocean, the sailfish is also one of
Speaker 1: the fastest and most athletic in the world. It's a
Speaker 1: type of billfish, a group of predatory fish species that
Speaker 1: also includes the swordfish, spearfish, and marlin. A billfish are
Speaker 1: known for their long, spear like bills and for their
Speaker 1: impressive size and speed. A billfish species tend to be
Speaker 1: apex predators and use their bills to help hunt and
Speaker 1: catch prey. They don't literally spear the prey with their swords,
Speaker 1: but more often they use those bills to slash at
Speaker 1: and stun schooling fish. They also have visually striking dorsal
Speaker 1: fins on their backs, though none are as remarkable as
Speaker 1: the sailfishes. Its signature sale like dorsal fin grows along
Speaker 1: almost the entire length of its body can be taller
Speaker 1: than the fish is wide from spine to stomach, a
Speaker 1: meaning that the sale is about as big as the
Speaker 1: sailfish itself, and that's pretty big. The sailfish can grow
Speaker 1: up to ten feet that's three meters long from tip
Speaker 1: to tail, and can weigh upwards of two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty pounds that's one hundred kilos. Even at that size,
Speaker 1: they are fast. They can swim nearly seventy miles an
Speaker 1: hour or one hundred and ten kilometers an hour, making
Speaker 1: the sailfish the fastest fish in the ocean. Just to
Speaker 1: put that in perspective, the cheetah, the fastest animal on land,
Speaker 1: tops out at about the same speed. The sailfish can
Speaker 1: be found in temperate two tropical bodies of salt water
Speaker 1: around the world. They live about four or five years
Speaker 1: in the wild, but have been known to survive about
Speaker 1: twice that in captivity. Are they're commonly seen along the
Speaker 1: southeast coast of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico,
Speaker 1: and around Puerto Rico, Bermuda and the Windward Islands. They're
Speaker 1: also found in parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans,
Speaker 1: with some occasionally found in the mediterrane and Sea. Though
Speaker 1: sailfish are fast, they don't typically travel far, preferring warm
Speaker 1: coastal waters and hunting grounds close to the ocean's surface.
Speaker 1: Studies have shown that sailfish can deploy and retract those
Speaker 1: impressive fins at will. When their sale is retracted, sailfish
Speaker 1: can reduce their drag, generating more thrust and speed. The
Speaker 1: opposite is also true with the sail raised, they can
Speaker 1: increase their drag and slow down dramatically. A sailfish have
Speaker 1: distinctive color patterns too, that help differentiate them from other billfish.
Speaker 1: They have mostly blue bodies and white bellies, and a
Speaker 1: pattern of light blue spots and vertical stripes. Their fins
Speaker 1: are usually blackish blue, and their coloring can change when
Speaker 1: they're particularly active or excited. Around the world. They have
Speaker 1: a few common prey, including large fish, squid, and crustaceans
Speaker 1: like crabs and shrimp. A sailfish have been observed working
Speaker 1: together to surround and trap schools of sardines. Method was
Speaker 1: documented with as few as for sailfish to as many
Speaker 1: as seventy, though the hunting didn't appear to be coordinated. Instead,
Speaker 1: the sailfish charged the school of sardines one at a
Speaker 1: time and used their bills to slash and prod the fish.
Speaker 1: According to one's study, sailfish might not catch as many
Speaker 1: fish as they would if they were hunting alone, but
Speaker 1: they definitely don't have to work as hard for it.
Speaker 1: The salefish's size means that they are generally at the
Speaker 1: top of the food chain, but they are preyed upon
Speaker 1: by a few larger species, typically sharks, orcas, and Mahi mahi.
Speaker 1: The meat of the saalefish is tough, so they have
Speaker 1: very little value on the commercial seafood market, but because
Speaker 1: of their speed, strength and striking looks, they're very popular
Speaker 1: targets for sport fishing. A recreational fisherman must use certain
Speaker 1: kinds of gear to minimize injury to the sailfish, and
Speaker 1: nearly all are catch and release. Only fishermen with a
Speaker 1: Federal Atlantic Highly Migratory Species permit can keep them, and
Speaker 1: they must be at least five and a quarter feet
Speaker 1: or one point six meters long to be legal. For
Speaker 1: the article, this episode is based on How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: Spoke with Captain Ray Rocher, who has been a professional
Speaker 1: fisherman since nineteen seventy nine. Rocher has decades of experience
Speaker 1: with salefish that began in the nineteen seventies when he
Speaker 1: used to eat smoked salefish at his grandfather's house. A
Speaker 1: Rocher said, my grandfather was really focused on catching them
Speaker 1: and we grew up eating them. It was just part
Speaker 1: of our life, a staple of his days of fishing
Speaker 1: on the drift boats. Then, I would say in the
Speaker 1: eighties people became more focused on conservation and using circle
Speaker 1: hooks and releasing salefish. He explained that salefish are particularly
Speaker 1: popular for sport fishing because they're fun to pursue a quote.
Speaker 1: There's a challenge involved in catching them, and obviously they're beautiful.
Speaker 1: They're really exciting to catch. They jump, they average about
Speaker 1: seven feet or over two meters total in length, and
Speaker 1: they fight hard. Generally, However, even though sailfish aren't targeted
Speaker 1: for commercial fishing, that's still the biggest threat to their population.
Speaker 1: A Salefish are sometimes caught along with tuna and other
Speaker 1: fish as by catch, a fishing gear for large scale
Speaker 1: food production. In the United States, the National Marine Fisheries
Speaker 1: Service enforces conservation efforts. All commercial ships flagged in the
Speaker 1: US are prohibited from selling, retaining, or purchasing saalefish, along
Speaker 1: with all other Atlantic billfish species. As we mentioned, recreational
Speaker 1: fishers must have all proper permits to catch sailfish, and
Speaker 1: they must release them back to the ocean. Rocher said,
Speaker 1: in his experience, the conservation efforts have paid off. Quote.
Speaker 1: One of the big factors in South Florida is that
Speaker 1: they're prevalent enough to target. Meaning if I only see
Speaker 1: one every week, people just wouldn't spend the money to
Speaker 1: pursue them. Just not common enough, right, just not achievable
Speaker 1: enough to go out and catch one or two or
Speaker 1: three a day. Salefish in their current population are that prevalent,
Speaker 1: and although fellow landlocked folks like myself might not be
Speaker 1: very familiar with it, there is a lot of money
Speaker 1: in the sport fishing industry. Rocher said, the benefit that
Speaker 1: salefish bring to a local economy is staggering when you
Speaker 1: look at what people spend to go catch them. I
Speaker 1: have three charter boats. I also fish on other tournament boats.
Speaker 1: I can't even tell you how many hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars are spent in my presence in a year
Speaker 1: in the pursuit of generally or mainly salefish. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article Salefish are super fast, stunning
Speaker 1: and smart ocean predators on how stuffworks dot Com, written
Speaker 1: by scheris three Whip Brain. Stuff is production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and partnership with how Stuffworks dot com and is produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio,
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