Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
September through early October has traditionally been a prime period for offshore anglers to get in on some outstanding tuna fishing - but not last year! Bluefin, yellowfin, bigeye - sometime around early August of 2018 tuna of any flavor became more than just a little challenging to hook a tuna off Delmarva. Fortunately Charlie tuna isn't the only fish in the sea and the tail end of last year's offshore fishing season still had boats returning from their adventures loaded with happy fishermen enthusiastic about their catches of billfish and dolphin. As a matter of fact, dolphin fishing in September and October was more than just a little bit good - it was absolutely outstanding with most anglers having little trouble landing their ten fish per person limit. And with so many of the fish tipping the scales at a very respectable 8 to 15 pounds, a limit of dolphin translated into a lot of meat on the cleaning table!
I should point out that the proper name for the fish I'm referring to is "dolphinfish" which is how they're typically listed in most fish identification publications. A gazillion years ago, fishermen got in the habit of dropping the "fish" from the name leaving just "dolphin" as the term they'd use to describe their catch. Of course, fishermen also know that using this abbreviation comes at a price, because every time a non-fisherman hears "dolphin" they immediately think of the warm-blooded, air-breathing dolphin they see swimming up and down the beaches each summer. So fishermen have become very accustom to clarifying for landlubbers the differences between dolphinfish and dolphin mammal. "No ma'am, we don't catch Flipper"!
To avoid the confusion fishermen could have gone with the dolphin's scientific name of "Coryphaena hippurus", but realistically - it's a little longwinded, and since most of us don't know Latin we'd end up botching the pronunciation anyway. So for years "dolphin" has worked just fine, at least between us fishermen because we know exactly what critter we're referring to. We can't, and don't, fish for the mammal dolphin, so if for some reason we need to refer to that animal we might say "Flipper dolphin, porpoise or bottlenose dolphin". Admittedly, the semantics of it all is a little quirky, but it has worked for us fishermen for a long time. At least "we" know what we're talking about!
This big misunderstanding has been more of a problem for folks running restaurants and fish markets. These days anyone who lists "dolphin" on a menu is liable to have a lynch mob assembled in their parking lot, or at the very least their staff will spend more time telling horrified patrons, "It's NOT Flipper!" than serving food. Wisely most restaurants have ditched the common name dolphin for the Hawaiian version "mahi-mahi". I'm not sure why the Hawaiians felt the need to name the fish twice unless they got tired of telling tourists, "NO it's NOT Flipper dolphin, it's mahi-MAHI"! In Mexico, dolphinfish are known as dorado, I don't know what Mexicans or Hawaiians call Flipper dolphins but I'm sure they're wise enough not to call them dorado or mahi-mahi.
I bring all this name stuff up because I've noted that in the last few years more and more fishermen are calling dolphin "mahi," and as someone who is not very keen on the recent trend of everything under the sun being described in the most politically correct words imaginable (I'd never make it in Washington), I'm not happy with my fellow anglers who think they need to dummy-down the words they use to describe their catch rather than continue to educate others that when they say "dolphin" they mean "dolphinfish" and NOT Flipper. Despite all of its transplanted palm trees, Ocean City ain't the Hawaiian Islands and that's not the Pacific Ocean out there - it's the Atlantic, and it's filled with dolphin(fish) not mahi(mahi)!
With water temperatures now on the rise it won't be long before some of the warm-water fish start showing up from lower latitudes and I expect that'll include the first dolphin of the season, which should certainly wind up on local cleaning tables before the month is out. In the meantime, if someone wants to catch a few mahi-mahi for dinner maybe they should book a flight to Hawaii. I'm sure the bite will be on there as well - Aloha!
I think that changing fish names in an attempt to pacify the thought process of anyone who hears them is opening up a deep can of confused worms. A number of years ago they changed the longtime name of "jewfish" to "goliath grouper". I'm sure the change was made with good intentions, but I wonder if they considered that in the Old Testament account David (a Jew) slayed Goliath who was a Philistine bad guy. It's just me talking, but I think it's better to name something after a good guy than a villain! And where does it end? Flip through the fish books and there's plenty of fodder for super sensitive humans looking for a fight. White marlin, black sea bass, red drum, rainbow runner, yellowfin tuna and what's so "great" about a white shark anyway? Quick, call the political police!
I'm pretty sure that bottlenose dolphin aren't any more worried that someone named a fish after them than most of us humans care that certain fish names share the same words that have been used to describe "us" for good, bad or indifferent for so many years. Call them whatever you wish, but as for me, I'm hoping Delmarva anglers catch a lot of "dolphin" this season, and if I get a funny look from the waitress when I order the "dolphin tacos," I'll politely inform her (and the horrified family from Ohio sitting at the next table) "don't worry - IT'S NOT FLIPPER"!
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center. During the winter months, Capt. Mark runs charters in the Lower Keys.
