Osprey - 12-5-2009 at 04:41 PM
I didn't want to clutter up (more) the thread on the Black Marlin so I herewith reprise a story I posted 3 years ago. (for the Newmads)
Size Does Matter
Although I’m a long-time salt water fisherman I have not spent much time thinking about Natural Selection and the creatures of the sea. I do know
that some creatures are so prolific that their offspring are truly “uncountable”. I know also that others have a very hard time producing more of
their specie—problems with fertilization, egg-laying, identification, sexual orientation, etc.
One problem sticks out for me because it involves billfish. The typical female blue marlin is four times larger than her male mating counterpart in
the wild. I try hard not to anthropomorphize everything when it comes to the animal world—using human or primate benchmarks and asking stupid
questions about “our differences.”
.
With the blue marlin I might make an exception: it might be fun and meaningful to imagine the difficulties encountered by humans if the female were
four times as large as males. Now, let’s be adults and keep the tittering muted, please. I have caught a few blue marlin. The creatures are
difficult to sex identify and I have never tried. They were released or, in the case of the small, tasty ones, prepared for the table. I’m going to
guess there are many, many huge adult female blue marlin. That means the small ones which are caught or tagged or observed are either juvenile
females or adult males—my guess infers there are no really large males.
There are those who say “pound for pound” the large ones put up the most ferocious fight of any billfish. Might it be safe to say “female blue
marlin fight like they have an attitude?” Might one conjecture that “most of the time, when hooked, they appear to be extremely agitated as in a
heightened state of anxiety?” Should one wonder if the cause could be frustration, i.e.” perpetually unfulfilled? (polite Blue Marlin might employ
the term underfertilized ).”
Of course you can’t really get into physiognomy when thinking about this because we are land animals. If the average woman was 4 times larger than
an average man he would need a ladder just to climb up into her lap—at 23 feet or so she would tower over him and outweigh him by hundreds of pounds.
As to procreation he would be, how shall I say, “overwhelmed” by their differences.
Marine scientists believe the marlin’s bill is used for striking its prey, for injuring small fish so they can more easily be caught and eaten. I
think that holds true for the large females. I think the bill of the male is used almost exclusively for tickling.
Santiago - 12-5-2009 at 04:44 PM
Would this mean I have to get back on top?