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Fish & Sharks

Sailfish

Svendsen and colleagues estimate a sailfish burst at 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s) from muscle data. It is not a logged swim.

A sailfish can swim about 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s), an estimate.

Also known as Istiophorus platypterus
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Illustration of the Sailfish, the fastest fish & shark, at about 18.6 mph. A sailfish on a pale museum plate, dorsal fin extended, with faint measuring arcs behind it.
Illustration from artist's concept by Patrick J. Lynch, CC BY 4.0

Top speed

Published as 8.3 m/sPublished as 8.3 m/sPublished as 8.3 m/s

Svendsen et al. 2016, Biology Open. Muscle-contraction estimate for Istiophorus platypterus, point value 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s), reported uncertainty ±3.1 mph (1.4 m/s). Not a logged swim. The paper says these fish cannot reach mythical speeds near 78.3 mph (35 m/s). The figure is the point estimate.

EstimatedBiology Open (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 80% of Usain Bolt's 100 m world-record paceSourced · Usain Bolt, 100 m in 9.58 s. World Athletics, Berlin 2009. Averaged over the race
  • 29% of a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • A football field in 11 sConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

Quick answers

People also ask

How fast can a sailfish swim?

A sailfish can swim about 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s), an estimate.

Is that figure claimed or verified?

Sailfish is labeled Estimated. Calculated or approximated rather than directly timed.

What is the source?

The figure cites Biology Open, “Maximum swimming speeds of sailfish and three other large marine predatory fish species based on muscle contraction time and stride length: a myth revisited.”

Where does Sailfish rank?

Sailfish is 1st of 10 on Fastest Fish & Sharks.

Mechanism

Why it's so fast

Svendsen and colleagues estimate a sailfish burst, Istiophorus platypterus, at about 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s) from muscle data. It is not a logged swim.

Species
Istiophorus platypterus
Estimate
18.6 mph (8.3 m/s)
Method
Muscle twitch
Illustration of the Sailfish, the fastest fish & shark, at about 18.6 mph. A sailfish with thin contour lines flowing along its streamlined body and sail-like dorsal fin.
Flow lines are illustrative, not measured. Illustration from artist's concept by Patrick J. Lynch, CC BY 4.0

  1. A muscle estimate

    The 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s) figure comes from how fast the muscle can twitch, scaled up to a burst, not from a tag that recorded the fish. Svendsen applied the same method to barracuda, little tunny and dorado. The sailfish is the fastest of those four estimates.

  2. Not a speedometer

    Waller's logged mako burst of 11.2 mph (5.02 m/s) is a different kind of evidence, a tag on a real fish. A higher muscle estimate is not automatically a faster logged swim. This page uses 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s) as an estimate and says so.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 29.9km/h18.6mph8.3m/s16.1knRanked figure

    Svendsen et al. 2016, Biology Open. Muscle-contraction estimate for Istiophorus platypterus, point value 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s), reported uncertainty ±3.1 mph (1.4 m/s). Not a logged swim. The paper says these fish cannot reach mythical speeds near 78.3 mph (35 m/s). The figure is the point estimate.

    ±3.1 mph (1.4 m/s) is the paper's uncertainty, not a second speed. The comparison uses 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s).

    Estimated
    Biology Open (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Species
Istiophorus platypterus
Estimate
18.6 mph (8.3 m/s)
Method
Muscle twitch

Context

Background

Svendsen and colleagues, Biology Open 2016, estimate burst speed from muscle-twitch data. For the sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus, the point estimate is 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s), with a reported uncertainty of 3.1 mph (1.4 m/s). The figure is 18.6 mph (8.3 m/s), qualifier estimated. It is not a timed swim.

The same paper's barracuda, little tunny and dorado estimates are separate rows. A shortfin mako bio-logger burst sits on this list too, and it is a measured speed, so the methods are not the same. The list still sorts that number.

Head to head

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