White Marlin - Mistaken Identity? For Marlin Fishermen this makes for a Real Problem!

Mistaken identity? A New Marlin Species Has Created a Real Identity Crisis!

Although the Roundscale Spearfish bears a close resemblance to the white marlin at first glance, a close examination of fins, scales, and DNA reveals a very different species. This finding has significant implications to the future of the threatened white marlin -- the new species is virtually indistinguishable from the White Marlin.

For years, fishermen (thinking they were catching the prized white marlin) may have caught something quite different, raising concerns about the true remaining numbers of the threatened species. This also brings into question a hundred years of "record keeping" done by official wildlife organizations.

A team of scientists from the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University and NOAA Fisheries Service's Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami has confirmed the existence of an this enigmatic billfish species closely resembling the heavily-fished, overexploited white marlin.

The new species has been named "Roundscale Spearfish" and was initially found in the Atlantic Ocean, where its distribution overlaps that of the white marlin, a prized game fish of recreational fishermen and anglers.

"The existence of the Roundscale Spearfish was confirmed by analyzing the shape of its mid-body scales, which are slightly more rounded at one end compared to the scales of all other Atlantic billfish species, and by analyzing its DNA which turns out to be very different from other billfish species -- DNA now says it all!

Without an expert eye to see the subtle differences between the White Marlin and the Roundscale Spearfish, conservation will be difficult at best. And for the plans currently underway to list the White Marlin as an endangered species.... well, nobody know where that will now go. Remember... most fishermen don't even understand DNA, much less carry a DNA kit with them.

Based on a 2003 survey by ICCAT, white marlin populations are already severely over-fished and only at about 12 percent of the level necessary to maintain maximum sustainable harvests. And that survey count likely included a good number of the new species.