Editor's Letter

When I'm offshore catching dolphin, it often strikes me just how much these beautiful fish look like something we ought to eat. Trust me, I've pulled plenty of creatures up from the depths that you wouldn't look at and say, "Yeah, that's going on my plate." But dolphin, with their brilliant neon yellows, greens and blues shimmering in the sun, look all the world like bluewater candy.

That, of course, is the curse of the mahi-mahi. Because we fishermen aren't the only predators out there who yearn for a little dolphin dinner. Not even close. When it comes to the dog-eat-dog world of open ocean food chains, dolphin aren't at the top. They're on the menu.

It's true that dolphin will eat just about anything that swims in front of themi- they have to. These seemingly perfect fish grow at a blistering rate, as much as 2.7 inches per week. It's thought that a bull, or male dolphin, can grow to 4 feet in length and 40 pounds in less than a year!

Achieving such unparalleled growth rates requires fuel, and lots of it. Dolphin, probably more than sharks, deserve the title of "ultimate eating machine."

Their known prey items include squid, ballyhoo, flying fish, crabs, small triggerfish, scad mackerel : and each other. Even dolphin like dolphin.

The list of predators that munch on mahi is equally diverse. Blue marlin, swordfish, wahoo, sharks and all the other pelagic big boys regularly gobble up gaffer-sized dolphin.

To understand the dangers these fish face, consider this tale from Don Hammond, a Charleston-based dolphin expert who oversees an international research effort.

Last year, Hammond placed three satellite tags in large dolphin: a 25-pound cow, 30-pound bull and 35-pound bull. (To put this in perspective, the dolphin pictured above probably weighs a mere 12 pounds, give or take. A 35-pound bull dolphin is a really nice fish.)

Not long after those tagged fish were released, each was eaten. Hammond knows this because his expensive satellite tags track how deep a fish dives, and the data these tags eventually beamed to a satellite showed brief periods of dolphin-like behavior, followed abruptly by decidedly un-dolphinlike behavior.

Hammond thinks a blue marlin took his cow to dinner. He suspects a big shark of some kind knocked down his 30-pound bull. And the big 35-pounder? Hammond suspects it met up with a monster swordfish, which proceeded to spend two weeks of daylight hours swimming 2,000 feet deep with the 35-pound bull, and Hammond's tag, in its belly.

"It just clearly shows how important dolphinfish are to highly pelagic game species," Hammond says, somewhat gracefully, I think.

"I call it the bluewater menhaden. It's being eaten throughout its life."

No matter how big or small the dolphin, Hammond says, "there's always something out there to eat it."

Amen, brother.

- Matt Winter, senior editor

Copyright © 1995 - 2009 Evening Post Publishing Co..