The brightly colored dolphin is 

 highly regarded as a food fish. Its 

 delicate white flesh is usually found 

 in gourmet recipes under its Hawai- 

 ian name, mahi-mahi. By either 

 name, the dolphin is one of the top 

 offshore game fish in North Carolina. 



Dolphin can usually be found 

 near floating sargassum or other 

 weeds, which provide them with food 

 and a hiding place. Dolphin hunt in 

 packs, and if you can lure just one, 

 the entire school will most likely 

 follow. 



Dolphins have bright turquoise, 

 yellow, blue and green patterns that 

 fade to yellow or silver almost 

 immediately upon death. Adult males 

 are shaped like battering rams, with 

 flat, blunt faces and high foreheads. 



wahoo appear to "light up" when they 

 get excited, glowing beneath their 

 steely-blue exterior. Sometimes called 

 tiger fish, the wahoo is often mounted 

 to display its blackish-blue bars that 

 resemble a tiger's stripes. 



Yellowfin Tuna 



Size: short-lived; have explosive rates 

 of growth; can measure up to 6 feet 

 long and weigh as much as 300 pounds 

 Season: found in deeper waters 

 year-round 



^Citation Size: 70 pounds 



As its popularity 

 and populations have 

 grown, the 

 yellowfin tuna 

 has become 

 the 



Wahoo 



Size: short-lived; grow 

 rapidly; reach more than 

 100 pounds 

 Season: found year-round in 

 deeper waters 

 ^Citation Size: 40 pounds 



Anglers like wahoo because they 

 put up a good fight when hooked. 

 After many blistering runs and 

 serious battles, Bahen calls this fish a 

 "souped-up king mackerel." 



A member of the mackerel 

 family, wahoo have long, slender 

 bodies. Like other large pelagics, 



number-one game 

 fish in North Carolina. 

 In 1994, more than 

 3 million pounds were caught 

 recreationally. 



Like the king mackerel, the 

 yellowfin tuna is an exciting catch 

 because it can be caught by trolling a 

 bright lure. 



Metallic blue and torpedo-shaped, 

 the yellowfin tuna has a yellow belly 

 and fins. It is the most brilliantly 

 colored of the tuna. Sometimes called a 

 longfin, you can tell it from other tuna 

 by its elongated anal and dorsal fins. 



Several of these fish have federal 

 and state minimum length require- 

 ments or bag limits not listed here. For 

 more information, call Sea Grant at 

 919/515-2454 and ask for "A Recre- 

 ational Guide to Management of Fish 

 in South Atlantic Waters" (Sea Grant 

 publication number UNC-SG-89-06). 

 The two-page chart lists biological data 

 and state and federal regulations for 

 popular species of marine fish found 

 off the North Carolina coast. 



THE TOP 10: 



1994 



Recreational Landings 



The N.C. Division of Marine 

 Fisheries estimates the yearly 

 catch of recreational species. 

 They gather data such as 

 landings, effort and location. 

 The division can use this 

 information to make manage- 

 ment decisions, stock assess- 

 ments or rankings of recre- 

 ational catch. 



1 . Yellowfin tuna — 



3,863,481 pounds 



2. Dolphin (mahi-mahi) — 

 2,133,095 pounds 



3. Spot — 

 1,788,220 pounds 



4. King mackerel — 

 1,028,305 pounds 

 5. Speckled trout 

 (spotted sea trout) — 

 654,661 pounds 



6. Spanish mackerel — 

 543,719 pounds 



7. Bluefish — 

 537,675 pounds 



8. Summer flounder — 

 438,535 pounds 



9. Wahoo — 

 387,028 pounds 



1 0. Atlantic croaker — 

 334,795 pounds 



* The Division of Marine 

 Fisheries sponsors the yearly 

 N.C. Saltwater Fishing 

 Tournament. Citations are 

 awarded to the anglers 

 who catch species that exceed 

 a set weight, known as the 

 citation size. At the end of the 

 year, an award is given to the 

 angler who catches the largest 

 of each species. For more 

 information, contact the 

 Division of Marine Fisheries 

 at 1-800/682-2632. 



COASTWATCH 1 7 



