Dispatch Method:

Tarpon are very bony and are considered to be a relatively poor eating fish, but a good sportfish that is mostly released. If you do choose to take one, their eating qualities can be improved if they are killed immediately by iki jime or a firm knock to the head before placing them in an ice slurry after bleeding.

Fish Description:

• Tarpon are large-scaled silvery fishes , olive/green dorsally, with a protrusible mouth, large eye and a single dorsal fin that has a distinctive trailing filament.
  
• Like their relatives, the eels, they have a transparent marine leptocephalus larval stage.
  
• The leptocephalus metamorphoses into juvenile tarpon that frequent estuaries and freshwater reaches of rivers.

Fish Distribution:

• This species can be found in tropical and subtropical inshore,estuarine and freshwater habitats throughout the Indo-Pacific region from the Red Sea to Marianas Islands.
  
• Tarpon can tolerate oxygen-poor water by inhaling air into their lung-like swim bladder.

Fish Size Common Length:

30-60 cm, maximum size around 120 cm and 18 kg.