Billfish, sailfish, spearfish, marlin… what’s the difference?
Marlin, sailfish and spearfish are all billfish, and their populations are being decimated by overfishing.
Unfortunately, although marlin and other billfish are among the biggest and fastest fish in the sea - top predators with little to fear from other predators - they are also among the most threatened. Overfishing has reduced their numbers to only a fraction of what they were just decades ago. And by removing so many predators from the top of the ocean food chain, we are putting entire ecosystems – and the vast diversity of life they support – at risk.
Marlin, sailfish and other big ocean predators play a crucial role in the sea’s ecology. Like lions and tigers on land, they are apex predators, helping to maintain a healthy balance in marine ecosystems by promoting stability, structure and predictability.
Ironically, top predators are in ways more vulnerable than their prey in that they are generally longer-lived, reach reproductive maturity at a later age, and take longer to recover from overfishing. When predators disappear, the effects cascade down throughout the food web, disrupting entire communities of life.
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| Photo by John Schwartz |
Take Marlin off the Menu Campaign
Six Senses are passionate about sustainable fishing -many overfished species such as billfish have not been served on our menus for many years. In line with Six Senses policies, the Six Senses group has taken a pledge to “Take Marlin Off the Menu” as a reminder of the significance of the declining billfish in our oceans.
Soneva Fushi is encouraging resorts in Maldives to follow suit by signing the pledge to Take Marlin Off the Menu, as well as to stop targeting billfish during guest fishing excursions.
The billfish situation in the world’s oceans
In the Atlantic Ocean…
Blue marlin and white marlin are overfished and overfishing is still continuing. Attempts to do quantitative assessments on sailfish have not been successful due to lack of accurate catch and effort data from all harvesters, but trends in catch-per-unit-effort – an indicator of stock abundance – have fallen consistently since the 1970s.
In the Pacific Ocean…
Black marlin: There has never been an assessment of the status of black marlin but landings trends over the past thirty years have been generally declining. There have been contradictory results in recent assessments of Pacific blue marlin status. Some assessments show the stock to be fully exploited. In contrast research done in 2002 to develop a broad-based estimate of pelagic ecosystem species shows that blue marlin had declined the most in abundance of any of these tuna-like species being at only 21% of their pre-1960 abundance. No conservation measures are in place for either blue marlin or black marlin on the Pacific high seas. There has been no effort to assess the status of sailfish or spearfish species in the Pacific, however recent catch-per-unit-effort data from the recreational fishery off of Central America has generated cause for concern.
In the Indian Ocean…
The Indian Ocean high seas fisheries are the responsibility of the Indian Ocean tuna commission (IOTC). The Indian Ocean is home to blue marlin, black marlin, striped marlin and sailfish. Although fishing pressure on tunas has increased dramatically in recent years and tuna catches have dropped precipitously over the last two years, there is no assessment and little useable data available to determine the health of marlin populations. The IOTC cannot advise on the status of these billfish species and no conservation measures are in place.
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| The overfishing of Indian Ocean Billfish in the 90’s has lead to an alarming decline in catches of billfish. Data taken from the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission Database (1959-2008). |
As a leading eco resort,
Soneva Fushi does not target billfish.
For more information on billfish, please visit:
http://www.takemarlinoffthemenu.org
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