Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Istiophorus platypterus
picudo, picudo banderón, pez vela del Indo-Pacífico, volador, Pacific sailfish
Size> Reaches a maximum length of 340 cm and a weight of 100 kg.
Habitat: An open-ocean fish that lives near the surface, usually above the thermocline. They frequently approach the coast, islands, and reefs. Sailfish and black marlin are known to migrate into nearshore waters where they compete for food and space.
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Teleostei
Order
Carangiformes
Family
Istiophoridae
Genus
Istiophorus
Species
platypterus
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Histiophorus dubius Bleeker, 1873 (misspelling), Histiophorus gladius (Bloch, 1793), Histiophorus immaculatus Rüppell, 1830, Histiophorus indicus Cuvier, 1832, Histiophorus orientalis Temminck & Schlegel, 1844, Istiophorus amarui Curtiss, 1944, Istiophorus brookei Fowler, 1933, Istiophorus dubius Bleeker, 1873, Istiophorus eriquius Jordan & Ball, 1926, Istiophorus gladifer Lacepède, 1801, Istiophorus gladius (Bloch, 1793), Istiophorus gladius greyi Jordan & Evermann, 1926, Istiophorus gladus (Bloch, 1793) (misspelling), Istiophorus greyi Jordan & Evermann, 1926, Istiophorus greyii Jordan & Evermann, 1926, Istiophorus immaculatus (Rüppell, 1830), Istiophorus japonicus Jordan & Thompson, 1914, Istiophorus ludibundus Whitley, 1933, Istiophorus orientalis (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844), Istiophorus triactis Klunzinger, 1871, Scomber gladius Bloch, 1793, Xiphias platypterus Shaw, 1792, Xiphias velifer Bloch & Schneider, 1801 (synonym), fide Appeltans et al. (2010)
Origin: Native
Distribution: Tropical and subtropical, California to Chile, in the eastern Pacific, and all oceanic islands.
- Appeltans, W. Bouchet, P., Boxshall, G.A., Fauchald, K., Gordon, D.P., Hoeksema, B.W., Poore, G.C.B., van Soest, R.W.M., Stöhr, S., Walter, T.C., Costello, M.J. (eds.) (2010) World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Available online at http://www.marinespecies.org.
- Constant, P. (2007) Marine Life of the Galapagos. The Diver's guide to Fishes, Whales, Dolphins and marine Invertebrates, 307 pp.
- Grove, J.S. Lavenberg, R.J. (1997) The Fishes of the Galapagos Islands. Stanford University Press, Stanford California. 862 pp.
- IUCN (2023) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2022-2 Https://www.iucnredlist.org
- McCosker, J.E. Rosenblatt, R.H. (2010) The fishes of the Galápagos Archipelago: an update. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sc., Ser. 4, vol. 61, Suppl. II, no. 11: 167-195.
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This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Istiophorus platypterus", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=14057. Accessed 31 October 2026.