Sailfish

Sailfish; Temporal range: Paleogene to present
	Atlantic sailfish
	Indo-Pacific sailfish
Conservation status
	; Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1); (Note that the IUCN recognizes one sailfish species)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Division:	Teleostei
Order:	Carangiformes
Family:	Istiophoridae
Genus:	Istiophorus; Lacépède, 1801
Type species
	Scomber gladius; (G. Shaw, 1792)
Species
	Istiophorus albicans (Latreille, 1804); Istiophorus platypterus (G. Shaw, 1792);
Synonyms
	Histiophorus G. Cuvier, 1832; Nothistium Hermann, 1804; Zanclurus Swainson, 1839;

Author Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Florida, USA, in the 1940s, with a sailfish he had caught

The sailfish is one or two species of marine fish in the genus Istiophorus, which belong to the family Istiophoridae (marlins). They are predominantly blue to gray in color and have a characteristically large dorsal fin known as the sail, which often stretches the entire length of the back. Another notable characteristic is the elongated rostrum (bill) consistent with that of other marlins and the swordfish, which together constitute what are known as billfish in sport fishing circles. Sailfish live in colder pelagic waters of all Earth's oceans, and hold the record for the highest speed of any marine animal.