One of the largest of all fish and striking in appearance, the Blue Marlin displays blue pigments on its upper (dorsal) side to help camouflage it from smaller prey swimming above it. Blue Marlin females are usually heavier than males – sometimes MUCH heavier: the largest females can weight up to 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) and run 13 feet (over 4 meters) from bill-tip to tail fin.

A legendary fighter when hooked by rod & reel, the Blue Marlin leaped to fame with the 1952 publication of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” Today, the Atlantic and Caribbean “billfish” industry employs thousands of workers directly and indirectly, with hundreds of companies seeking to exploit shrinking numbers of Blue Marlin and other large billfish.

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