It’s a small wonder mahi-mahi don’t have an identity crisis given the number of other names they’re called. Yet, it matters none if you call these popular gamefish dolphinfish, dolphin, mahi or dorado—they’ll still scrap like world-class MMA fighters and taste oh-so-sweet grilled. I encountered my first mahi when a friend was in the offshore game. After a so-so day trolling for tuna, we mitigated our losses by bailing dolphin that had congregated under a wooden pallet. I tossed six-inch Clousers at them, which they brazenly smacked as if the feathered fly had been a live pilchard. The fish, all six pounds of it, shot out of the Atlantic like a bottle rocket. Once to hand, its brilliantly colored flanks were awash in gold, neon greens, and yellows and splashed with iridescent purples. I was a mahi-mahi fan ever after.
No doubt many a bluewater trip in which anglers have zeroed out on tuna or billfish has been rescued by a school of mahi hanging out under five-gallon bucket lids, sargasso weed lines, or lobster and fish buoys. Whereas some prized game fish are slow to grow and reproduce, making them vulnerable to overfishing and thus slow to rebound from intense fishing pressure, not so with mahi. In fact, it’s almost the complete opposite. Both males and females reach sexual maturity in less than six months, and the females release anywhere between 80,000 and 1,000,000 eggs per event, which they can do two or three times a year.
Researchers estimate that in ideal conditions mahi can grow an inch per week. One male fish captured for research by the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science’s aquaculture program packed on 50 pounds in nine months! Mahi are relatively short-lived, usually just a few years; though they are capable of a five-year lifespan under excellent and lucky circumstances.
Because these long-ranging, fast-growing, prolific spawners are so resilient to fishing pressure from sport and commercial fishermen, several fishery conservation groups rate wild-caught mahi as sustainable, especially those caught by hook-and-line; not so much for mahi landed with longlines, which can result in wasteful bycatch. Though largely unregulated throughout out its world-wide range, fishery managers in the South Atlantic appear to be moving toward establishing some management regime for this popular gamefish species.
As you might expect of a fish that possesses a fast growth rate and bunny like randiness, these fish make for good commercial aquaculture candidates. Operations are ongoing in the south Atlantic, Gulf, Caribbean, and Pacific. A couple of years ago researchers from the University of Miami’s experimental hatchery on Virginia Key kicked off their three-year study not to grow mahi but also to test what effects the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster have had on pelagic fish.
One of the most fascinating traits of mahi is their ability to travel extremely long distances. Trips originating in the tropics covering thousands of miles have been documented. Don Hammond of the Dolphinfish Research Program, with the help of recreational fishermen, has been collecting information since 2002 to better understand these fishes’ migration movements in the western Atlantic. His pop-up satellite tags have shown some individual mahi have swum 8000 miles or more, catching the northern currents to the Atlantis Canyon area off New York before turning around and swimming back toward the tropics.
Know Your Mahi
Peanut Dolphin: Usually under two to three pounds.
Bailer/Grasshopper: Three- to nine-pounders.
Gaffer: 15-plus pounds where the gaff is best tool to land.
Bulls and Cow: The largest mahi are the males, easily identifiable by their square, block heads. Mature femals, called cows, have rounded, less-pronounced noggins.
by Captain Chris D. Dollar
Friday, July 1, 2016 - 09:00
It’s a small wonder mahi-mahi don’t have an identity crisis given the number of other names they’re called. Yet, it matters none if you call these popular gamefish dolphinfish, dolphin, mahi or dorado—they’ll still scrap like world-class MMA fighters and taste oh-so-sweet grilled. I encountered my first mahi when a friend was in the offshore game. After a so-so day trolling for tuna, we mitigated our losses by bailing dolphin that had congregated under a wooden pallet. I tossed six-inch Clousers at them, which they brazenly smacked as if the feathered fly had been a live pilchard. The fish, all six pounds of it, shot out of the Atlantic like a bottle rocket. Once to hand, its brilliantly colored flanks were awash in gold, neon greens, and yellows and splashed with iridescent purples. I was a mahi-mahi fan ever after.
No doubt many a bluewater trip in which anglers have zeroed out on tuna or billfish has been rescued by a school of mahi hanging out under five-gallon bucket lids, sargasso weed lines, or lobster and fish buoys. Whereas some prized game fish are slow to grow and reproduce, making them vulnerable to overfishing and thus slow to rebound from intense fishing pressure, not so with mahi. In fact, it’s almost the complete opposite. Both males and females reach sexual maturity in less than six months, and the females release anywhere between 80,000 and 1,000,000 eggs per event, which they can do two or three times a year.
Researchers estimate that in ideal conditions mahi can grow an inch per week. One male fish captured for research by the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science’s aquaculture program packed on 50 pounds in nine months! Mahi are relatively short-lived, usually just a few years; though they are capable of a five-year lifespan under excellent and lucky circumstances.
Because these long-ranging, fast-growing, prolific spawners are so resilient to fishing pressure from sport and commercial fishermen, several fishery conservation groups rate wild-caught mahi as sustainable, especially those caught by hook-and-line; not so much for mahi landed with longlines, which can result in wasteful bycatch. Though largely unregulated throughout out its world-wide range, fishery managers in the South Atlantic appear to be moving toward establishing some management regime for this popular gamefish species.
As you might expect of a fish that possesses a fast growth rate and bunny like randiness, these fish make for good commercial aquaculture candidates. Operations are ongoing in the south Atlantic, Gulf, Caribbean, and Pacific. A couple of years ago researchers from the University of Miami’s experimental hatchery on Virginia Key kicked off their three-year study not to grow mahi but also to test what effects the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster have had on pelagic fish.
One of the most fascinating traits of mahi is their ability to travel extremely long distances. Trips originating in the tropics covering thousands of miles have been documented. Don Hammond of the Dolphinfish Research Program, with the help of recreational fishermen, has been collecting information since 2002 to better understand these fishes’ migration movements in the western Atlantic. His pop-up satellite tags have shown some individual mahi have swum 8000 miles or more, catching the northern currents to the Atlantis Canyon area off New York before turning around and swimming back toward the tropics.
Know Your Mahi
Peanut Dolphin: Usually under two to three pounds.
Bailer/Grasshopper: Three- to nine-pounders.
Gaffer: 15-plus pounds where the gaff is best tool to land.
Bulls and Cow: The largest mahi are the males, easily identifiable by their square, block heads. Mature femals, called cows, have rounded, less-pronounced noggins.
by Captain Chris D. Dollar