Is Sailfish an Endangered Species?
Today, I decided to check thru the comments on my photos in my website and WHOA!!! One particular series of photos received a “not too friendly” feedbacks from my viewers. I didn’t see it coming & had had a real big unpleasant shock there.
It was regarding a dead sailfish photo taken during one of my dive trip years back. This fish was caught at a NON-marine park region in Malaysia. During that time (and even at this moment) I believed the fish was a game-fish, so it’s legal to catch & consume this fish. We didn’t see it as any different from other edible fish such as trevallies or groupers.
Now, starting to feel guilty of my might-be “crime”, I went on a net-surfing spree to do some research on the threatened-species lists (only those recognized & credible worldwide). First I went to GOOGLE and typed in “sailfish as endangered species” to search the web. The first link I checked was at MarineBio.Org which DIDN’T directly say that the certain species of sailfish is endangered.
I wasn’t convinced enough, so I searched this website for more details. After a few clicks, I found myself in FishBase.Org website. Now to my relief, it’s not listed in the IUCN Red List! (Read more at Wikipedia. What is IUCN?) True enough, I went searching in the red list with keywords “sailfish“, “istiophoridae“, “sail fish” and “istiophorus”.
THERE WAS NO LISTING of the sailfish family!
Not satisfied with my findings, I continued searching in NOAA Fisheries Service website. Result is NIL too. Here is the Species List 1 & Species List 2. I even searched through The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES.Org)
So there! I’m off the guilt trip. However, this doesn’t mean I’ll eat OR not eat any sailfish meat in the future. I’m going to sit on the fence on this matter for a while.
**I sure don’t deserve all those bad names & curses given in the comments!**
I don’t think its endangered. I think I read that the population has exploded in the US. This is because the top predator such as hammerhead and tiger shark ( I think), has been overfished. This has allowed the sailfish which is a middle predator to eats things below the chain such as scallops, which has plummeted in numbers.
Hammerhead:
Where did u read about this population explosion? Thanx for sharing.
Sorry asther, I can’t remember where. It was during one of my aimless net surfing. If I find it again, will let you know. BTW, I saw a sailfish swimming alongside our dive boat when I was diving the Similan Islands about 6 years ago. The boat was sailing during the night to our dive sites for the following day. I was sitting out on the deck and “willing” the sea to show me something. Lo behold! Suddenly, I saw it swimming beside us at great speed. At least, I thot it was a sailfish because of the pointed front.
whilst it may not be an endangered species, the etiquette for fishing gamefishes is to practice catch-and-release. Unfortunately this is very rarely observed in Asia.
Nudi:
In Asia (or at least in my country), the term “gamefishes” does not mean much to the locals because mainly all fishes caught are supposed to be edible. Even the stonefish species which is known for its deadly poison is caught & served in many seafood restaurant.
Fishing for fun or competition is still mostly limited to the lake & rivers as deep sea fishing requires bigger boats which is not easily available & very costly.
Sailfish, at least to us, is still in abundance here and commonly found in the local fish markets. So, is sailfish considered a gamefish in Malaysia? Or a food source for the people?