Boats head offshore in the morning, find the birds, then the dolphins, and under the dolphins there they are. A yellowfin of thirty kilos will take an hour to bring in and feed a table for a week.
Where you’ll see it
Well offshore, over deep water, often in the company of dolphins and diving birds. Sportfishing charters from the Papagayo coast target them year round.
What to know
The long yellow second dorsal and anal fins are the identifiers, growing longer as the fish gets larger. They are warm blooded, built for speed, and the reason the sashimi here is as good as it is. Local boats fish with rod and line, which is far kinder to everything else in the sea than the industrial alternative.
