The first time you see a sailfish in action, you cannot help but marvel at its mastery of using its snout for feeding, its power of concentration, reaction capacity, and speed. The food of this elegant animal gathers in huge schools that move, change direction, and sense rapidly.
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It is not easy to obtain food with this defense strategy. The only salvation is coordination. Sardines that are outside the group will not survive.
Although they compete for food with dolphins and sharks, nobody surpasses the sailfish in skill. In one swift strike, it picks off fish one by one, eating them and then going back for more. Sailfish are insatiable giants that can exceed three meters in length and inhabit the waters of the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and Indian Ocean. Thanks to their robust body and their huge, rigid, crescent-shaped tail, they can reach 110 km/h and 30 meters per second, leaving very few chances for the fish in the schools, as we have seen in the video, and they will only stop their hunting until the school disappears or they are satiated.
Little room for escape
The power of their strong and rigid tail is the key for this fish to achieve such speeds, and the sail, or dorsal fin, that evolution has provided, makes it a species perfectly prepared to move at high speeds. If we add to this their long, fine, and rigid snout which they use like a fencing champion, we understand why fish have little else to do but try to enter the center of the school.
Sailfish, image by CFoceanimages 
