---
title: Indo-Pacific Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus)
scientific_name: Istiophorus platypterus
common_name: Indo-Pacific Sailfish
taxon: Marlins
conservation_status: VU - Vulnerable
published: 2024-11-24T09:02:26.753Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:09:45.607Z
tags: Indo-Pacific Sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus, Marlins, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/marlins/indo-pacific-sailfish
---

# Indo-Pacific Sailfish (*Istiophorus platypterus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Marlins (*Istiophoridae*)
- **Size:** up to 3.4 m
- **Weight:** 100.2 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-200 m
- **Max age:** 13 yrs
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Open water, hunting near the surface
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** VU - Vulnerable

## How to recognise it

- enormous sail-like dorsal fin, far taller than the body is deep
- long thin bill and a stiff crescent tail
- dark blue back with pale vertical bars that flash on and off while hunting
- length up to 3.4 m

A dark blue fish to 3.4 m (11 ft) with a long thin bill and a dorsal fin so large it is called a sail, folded flat into a groove when the fish is traveling and thrown up when it is not.

The sail is a hunting tool. Sailfish work baitfish schools in groups, raising their fins to make themselves look enormous and herding the school into a tight ball at the surface, then taking turns to slash through it with the bill. It is coordinated, the fish take turns rather than colliding, and the bill is used to stun rather than to spear.

While they do it they change color. Bars of pale blue flash on and off along the flanks within a second, driven by pigment cells under direct nervous control, and the flashing is aimed at the other sailfish rather than the prey - a way of signaling intent so two animals do not slash into each other.

About the speed record: the famous 110 km/h figure comes from a 1940s fishing-line experiment and has not survived scrutiny. Careful measurements put a sailfish's real burst at around 35 km/h, which is fast but not the fastest fish in the sea, and the bill's acceleration at the tip is what does the actual work.

## Also known as

- **English:** Indo-Pacific sailfish, Atlantic sailfish, sailfish
- **Arabic:** سمك الشراع الهندي باسيفيكي
- **French:** voilier indo-pacifique, Voilier de I'Indo-Pacifique, Voilier de l'Atlantique
- **Italian:** Pesce vela Indo-Pacifico, Pesce vela atlantico, Pesce vela
- **German:** Indopazifischer Fächerfisch, Fächerfisch
- **Spanish:** pez vela, Pez vela del Atlántico, Pez vela del Indo-Pacífico
- **Portuguese:** Agulhão, Agulhão-bandeira, Peixe-vela
- **Dutch:** Atlantische zeilvis, Indopacifische zeilvis, Pacifische zeilvis
- **Swedish:** Segelfisk
- **Polish:** Żaglica Pacyficzna, Zaglica
- **Czech:** plachetník širokoploutvý
- **Japanese:** バショウカジキ, Bashokajiki, Bashôkajiki
- **Chinese:** 雨傘旗魚
- **Russian:** Атлантический парусник, Индо-тихоокеанский парусник
- **CYM:** Pysgod Hwyliog, pysgodyn hwyliog
- **DA:** Pacifisk sejlfisk
- **FI:** Atlantinpurjekala, Purjekala
- **FIJ:** saku vorowaqa
- **KO:** 대서양돛새치, 돛새치, 태평양돛새치
- **MAR:** तदमासा
- **MLG:** Vovorontsatra
- **MSA:** Rayan
- **NO:** Seilfisk
- **SIN:** තලපත්
- **TAH:** ha'urepe
- **TH:** ปลากระโทงร่ม

## Scientific synonyms

- *Histiophorus dubius* Bleeker, 1872
- *Histiophorus gladius* (Bloch, 1793)
- *Histiophorus immaculatus* Rüppell, 1830
- *Histiophorus indicus* Cuvier, 1832
- *Histiophorus orientalis* Temminck & Schlegel, 1844
- *Istiophorus amarui* Curtiss, 1944
- *Istiophorus brookei* Fowler, 1933
- *Istiophorus dubius* Bleeker, 1872
- *Istiophorus eriquius* Jordan & Ball, 1926
- *Istiophorus gladifer* Lacepède, 1801
- *Istiophorus gladius* (Bloch, 1793)
- *Istiophorus gladius greyi* Jordan & Evermann, 1926
- *Istiophorus gladus* (Bloch, 1793)
- *Istiophorus greyi* Jordan & Evermann, 1926
- *Istiophorus greyii* Jordan & Evermann, 1926
- *Istiophorus immaculatus* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Istiophorus japonicus* Jordan & Thompson, 1914
- *Istiophorus ludibundus* Whitley, 1933
- *Istiophorus orientalis* (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844)
- *Istiophorus triactis* Klunzinger, 1871
- *Scomber gladius* Bloch, 1793
- *Xiphias platypterus* Shaw, 1792
- *Xiphias velifer* Bloch & Schneider, 1801

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/marlins/indo-pacific-sailfish)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*