Dan, your question made me very curious. I did a bit of searching on the internet and found a number of fishing charter sites that talk about sail fish. I do hope that someone with first-hand knowledge answers your question, however.

What I found, in brief, was that swordfish, marlin, spearfish, and sailfish, are collectively referred to as billfish. Most of these sites said that on their charters they prefer to release all billfish that were caugh unless the fish are going to be taken to shore to be stuffed and mounted as trophies.

I found more than one charter site that said game fish (such as sailfish and marlin) "which are not edible" are released.

One site said "we believe in releasing all billfish, but we leave it up to the discression of the client to make that decision. Sailfish meat is edible, especially when smoked, but the proportion of edible meat (about 30%) to its size is the reason we maintain this opinion."

Great question Dan. Again, I look forward to someone replying to your question who has first-hand knowledge about sailfish.

Lastly, I hope you had a great adventure catching the fish. As I understand it, landing a sailfish is quite an achievement. Cheers. Kel