Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A marlin is a large game fish, also called a spearfish - family: Istiophoridae; order: Perciformes. It belongs to the genus Tetrapturus (or Makaira). It has an elongated body, up to 2.5 m long, a spearlike snout, and a long rigid dorsal fin, which extends forwards to form a crest. Marlins are fast swimmers, occurring in all seas and hunting small fish. The larger species include the blue marlin, Makaira nigricans, which grows to 4.6 m (14.6 feet) long and around 450 kg (992 pounds). They are popular sporting fishes in certain tropical areas and are also commercially important as a food fish. see also: Florida Marlins (baseball team) This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.