THE FASTEST GROWING FISH

Is the dolphinfish, arguably the world's most perfect gamefish, in trouble despite its abundance and meteoric growth rate?

- Doug Olander

Thank God for the mahi.

It never fails. When someone learns that I've fished all over the world, they immediately ask me, "What's your favorite fish to catch?" Lucky for me, the mahi makes this easy. Naming Coryphaena hippurus is almost a no-brainer.

Does any other gamefish species tick as many boxes? These amazing critters are:

• Abundant in all warm and temperate oceans
• Aggressive and usually eager to strike most baits or lures
• Great sight-casting targets in blue water
• Fabulous high-jumpers, leaping at the first sting of a hook 
• One of the fastest fish in the sea
• Unforgettably and incomparably colored, with everchanging brilliant electric blues, yellows and greens 
• Fast-growing, reaching 2 to 4 feet in length in a year 
• Among the finest-eating of fish

In part because the species is so widespread, C. hippurus is a fish of many names. But it most frequently goes by three: dorado in South and Central America and California; dolphinfish (often just dolphin) in the Southeast US and Caribbean; and mahimahi or simply mahi in Hawaii and most areas outside those mentioned above. Whatever you call it, mahi remains one of the world's most popular gamefish.

Mahi occupy the surface layer of the deep ocean, swimming in large schools when young and in small packs as they grow into large adults. The largest mahi can patrol the sea solo but sometimes gather in numbers around anything that passes for a FAD (fish-aggregating device). Mahi may hang around any piece of flotsam for long periods, often in schools of dozens, eager to compete to run down anything that moves.

Recently, internationally known marine artist and conservationist Guy Harvey and mahi scientist Wess Merten came across a huge floating tree.