Page 121 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators

Atlantic blue marlin
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Low odds
Only around
one per-cent of
marlin eggs make it to
Spine adulthood, with the
Marlins have 24 vertebrae in rest being eaten
the spine, which help them
reach swimming speeds by plankton
of up to 97 kilometres (60 feeders.
miles) per hour.
Bill
Eyes
Marlin vision is excellent, and The sharp bill is essentially

research even suggests they the marlin’s fishing rod. It
can detect limited colour. Their uses it to spear fast-moving

lenses block out ultraviolet fish, up to 75 per-cent of
light, making them blind to which is skipjack tuna
their own UV shimmer.

Microscopic to monstrous
It’s difficult to believe the enormous blue marlin begins life

as a tiny speck, floating helplessly through the ocean
Altantic marlins are known as ‘broadcast spawners’. This means
that a female releases several million unfertilised eggs into the
water column while a male injects the water with sperm. The
one-millimetre (0.04-inch) eggs are fertilised in the open water
and take around a week to hatch. It then takes up to four years for
the fish to reach maturity, all the while looking very diff erent from

its adult form.
Pectoral Fins
The best way to tell the
difference between a marlin

and a swordfish is to look at

the pectoral fins. Marlin fins

are small, but swordfish fins
extend far below the body.
Marlin egg Marlin fry
Marlin eggs float free as plankton, Only 12 millimetres (half an inch)

and their sheer numbers ensure at long, this tiny larva grows to reach
least a few survive to adulthood. up to four metres (14 feet).

“Marlins tend to spear their prey
and then shake their head violently
Adolescent marlin
before engulfing their meal” Though still measuring only 22 millimetres (0.9 inches), the fish is

© FLPA
recogniseable as a marlin.
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