4 stocks exist. Northeastern Pacific stock: There have been a number of studies of the stock structure of Striped Marlin in the Pacific Ocean. The most recent found that there was a single stock of Striped Marlin in the northeast Pacific Ocean and the assessment was based on this assumption (IUCN 2011).

In the Eastern Pacific the distribution stretches from California to the southwestern and central eastern Gulf of California to Peru, including all of the oceanic islands. Striped marlin are pelagic billfish native to the Indian and Pacific oceans. They are found in coastal waters offshore of Africa, Mexico, South America, and New Zealand. In North American waters, Striped marlin are most common south of Point Conception, California, but range as far north as Oregon (Encyclopedia of Life n.d.).