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(Click for large pic. 19Kb)
This is a spectacular fish, both as to appearance and to performance. The body is blue-purple above, shading to pale yellowish-grey below often with dull-blue bars composed of spots; but the striking feature of the fish is the great Prussian, blue dorsal fin which generally bears a series of dusky or black spots. This erect fin sometimes projects from the water as a sail as the fish rests at the surface. The ventral fins are characteristically long and strap-like, reaching almost to the vent.
It is a keenly-sought game-fish; when hooked it frequently breaks into a series of spectacular leaps. It is sometimes taken by inshore professional mackerel-trollers who market it, beheaded, in the guise of Mackerel; more commonly it is captured along the outer edges of the Barrier Reef. It grows to 3.2 m (10.5 feet).
The largest so far taken in Queensland weighed 73 kg (161 lb.); it was taken on Deep Tempest (off Moreton Island: S. Qld.) on a 10-kg (22-1b.) line. During midsummer many small groups of these Sailfish, and numerous "loners", are seen off Flinders Reef and Hutchison Shoal (Cape Moreton: S. Qld.) where they feed voraciously on surface shoals of Weeping Toadfish
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