Hatchet Marlin??

[carom]

Ok guys i just stumbled across an article from a local marine publication naming a "Hatchet Marlin"....article is in spanish, thus I didn't bother to post it. however, it reads something as comparing it with the dirty white boys .....some minor differences such as gills length, scales shape and position of the a-hole.....

never heard of this myself threfore I'm asking for general knowledge

tks

Mike

[Admin]

Posted on sportfishermen.com a couple months ago

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The hatchet marlin is a pretty interesting story. When the billfishes were last reviewed in 1985 by Nakamura, there were a few problem areas. One was the roundscale spearfish and the other was the hatchet marlin. The roundscale spearfish was described based on one specimen taken off Madeira, and they didn't keep the specimen. Nakamura chose to include the species in his publication -- Tetrapturus georgii. While Nakamura did not recognize the hatchet marlin, he pointed out that it might be another species of billfish.

For the Fourth International Billfish Symposium that was held last year on Catalina Island, California, my colleagues and I presented a new study of the billfish based on morphological and molecular characters. We had specimens of all billfish except for roundscale spearfish. What our data showed was that the hatchet marlin was indeed a different species than white marlin, and it grouped with the spearfish. At the symposium another researcher from Florida presented molecular information on the roundscale spearfish indicating that it was a valid species. When I saw his pictures of the fish I thought to myself that it was a hatchet marlin. After the meeting we exchanged samples and sure enough, the hatchet marlin and the roundscale spearfish are the same animal.

It was just lucky to get three more specimens of hatchet marlin at the Mid-Atlantic $500,000 this August. It provided us a chance to look at morphological differences between whites and hatchet marlin. While most of us use the squared off fins to designate a hatchet marlin, it turns out that that character does not always work. Whites can have truncated fins. There are three really good characters to identify a hatchet marlin/roundscale spearfish: (1) the location of the vent - in a white the vent is about two inches forward of the anal fin; in a hatchet marlin/roundscale spearfish it is about six inches in front; (2) the lenght of the branchiostegals (the rays below the gill cavity on the ventral side of the head) - in a white marlin they are relatively short, extending to the pre-opercle (about two- thirds of the way out on the gill cover), while on hatchet marlin/roundscale separfish, they extend almost all the way to the end of the gill cover; and finally (3) the scales - if you look at the side of a white it is fairly smooth in coloration while in a roundscale spearfish it appears almost polka-dotted and if you run your hand forward on a white you'll get stuck by the scales - that doesn't happen on a hatchet marlin/roundscale spearfish.

If you'd like, I have some pictures of these differences.

Cheers,

John


John Graves
Professor of Marine Science
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
College of William and Mary
Attached Images

[alltackle]

I heard a rumor about a law suit being filed over last year's MA-500 winner being a Hatchet instead of a White Marlin. There is $ Million on the line.

[matey8941]

I heard a rumor about a law suit being filed over last year's MA-500 winner being a Hatchet instead of a White Marlin. There is $ Million on the line.

well if thats true idk how they are going to prove it....because i think its called a "hatchet white marlin"....the guy at the MA 500 last year who sat next to admin was a genous and knew all about them but he wasnt sure what made them a hatchet....still alot of research being done, soo who knows

[Admin]

From what I understand a hatchet during these tournaments has always been considered a white. Just like in the shark tourneys a Poor beagle is considered a mako.

[carom]

Thanks for the info...the article i found tell the same story as Admin's post. also metions the thing on the MA-500. nothing about a suit though!

[Fiore3]

Well by the location of the **** and anal fin the marlin I caught last year looks to be a hatchet.. The anal fin is in my hand and my friend kyle's hand is between the **** and anal fin...

What do you all think?

[matey8941]

Well by the location of the **** and anal fin the marlin I caught last year looks to be a hatchet.. The anal fin is in my hand and my friend kyle's hand is between the **** and anal fin...

What do you all think?

its hard to tell.....the **** does look further up but the thing by the gills looks like a white marlin and i cant tell about the color

[Fiore3]

That was half the problem that I had when I zoomed in on the pic it got to blurry to tell much about the gills..

matey thanks for your opinion....

fiore

[matey8941]

That was half the problem that I had when I zoomed in on the pic it got to blurry to tell much about the gills..

matey thanks for your opinion....

fiore

if you look it looks just like the pic admin posted up...its shorter which would be a white marlin