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SWORDFISH

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 275 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SWORDFISH , the name given to a small See also:

family of spiny-rayed fishes (Xiphiidae), the See also:principal characteristic of which consists in the prolongation of the upper See also:jaw into a See also:long pointed See also:sword-like weapon. The " sword " is formed by the coalescence of the intermaxillary and maxillary bones, which possess an extremely hard texture; it has the shape of a much elongated See also:cone, more or less flattened throughout its whole length; the end is sharply pointed. It is smooth above and on the upper See also:part of the sides, and rough below owing to the presence of innumerable rudimentary See also:teeth, which have no See also:function. The See also:general See also:form of the See also:body is well proportioned, somewhat elongate, and such as is always found in fishes with See also:great See also:power Swordfish (Histiophorus pulchellus). of See also:swimming, as, for instance, in the See also:mackerel and See also:tunny, and the tail terminates in a powerful bilobed caudal fin. A long fin occupies nearly the whole length of the back, whilst the anal fin is generally interrupted in the See also:middle and consequently appears to be See also:double. The skin is very See also:firm, partly naked, partly with small lanceolate scales deeply embedded in the skin. The teeth of the See also:lower jaw are, like those of the upper, merely rudimentary structures, which render the See also:surface of the See also:bone rough without possessing any See also:special function. Swordfishes have been divided into three generic See also:groups: a. Histiophorus, with a high dorsal fin which can be spread out like a See also:sail, and with ventral fins which are reduced to a pair of long styliform appendages. b. Tetrapturus, with a dorsal fin of which the anterior rays only are elongate, the See also:remainder of the fin being See also:low or partly obsolete, and with styliform ventral fins as in the preceding genus.

c. Xiphias, with the dorsal fin shaped as in Tetrapturus, but without ventral fins. Swordfishes are truly pelagic fishes, which either singly or in pairs or in smaller or larger companies See also:

ream over the oceans of the tropical and subtropical zones of both hemispheres. Some See also:species wander regularly or stray far into the temperate seas. Some of the tropical forms are the largest of Acanthopterygian fishes, and not exceeded in See also:size by any other Teleostean; such species attain to a length of from 12 to 15 ft., and swords have been preserved more than 3 ft. long and with a See also:diameter of at least 3 in. at the See also:base. The Histiobhori, which inhabit chiefly the Indo-Pacific Ocean, but occur also in the See also:Atlantic, seem to possess in their high dorsal fin an additional aid for locomotion. During the rapid movements of the See also:fish this fin is folded down-wards on the back, as it would impede the velocity of progress by the resistance it offers to the See also:water; but, when the fish is swimming in a leisurely way, it is frequently seen with the fin erected, and projecting out of the water, and when quietly floating on the surface it can sail by the aid of the fin before the See also:wind, like a See also:boat. The See also:food of the swordfishes is the same as that of tunnies, and consists of smaller fish, and probably also in great measure of pelagic cuttle-fishes. It has been ascertained by actual observation that swordfishes procure their food by dashing into a school of fishes, piercing and killing a number of them with their swords; and this See also:kind of weapon would seem to be also particularly serviceable in killing large cuttle-fish, like the saw of sawfishes, which is used for the same purpose. But the swords of the large species of Histiophorus and Tetrapturus are, besides, most formidable weapons of aggression. These fishes never hesitate to attack whales and other large cetaceans, and, by repeatedly stabbing them, generally retire from the combat victorious. That they combine in these attacks with the thresher-See also:shark is an often-repeated See also:story which is discredited by some naturalists on the ground that the dentition of the thresher-shark is much too weak to make an impression on the skin of any cetacean.

The cause which excites swordfishes to such attacks is unknown; but they follow the See also:

instinct so blindly that they not rarely assail boats and See also:ships in a similar manner, evidently mistaking them for cetaceans. They easily See also:pierce the See also:light canoes of the natives of the Pacific islands and the heavier boats of the professional swordfish fishermen, often dangerously wounding the persons sitting in them. Attacks by swordfishes on ocean-going ships are so See also:common as to be included among See also:sea-risks: they are known to have driven their weapon through See also:copper-sheathing, See also:oak-See also:plank and See also:timber to a See also:depth of nearly io in., part of the sword projecting into the inside of the See also:ship; and the force required to produce such an effect has been described by See also:Sir R. See also:Owen in a See also:court of See also:law as equal to " the accumulated force of fifteen double-handed hammers," and the velocity as " equal to that of a swivel-shot " and " as dangerous in its effects as a heavy See also:artillery projectile." Among the specimens of planking pierced by swordfishes which are preserved in the See also:British Museum there is one less than a See also:foot square which encloses the broken ends of three swords, as if the fishes had had the See also:object of concentrating their attack on the same vulnerable point of their supposed enemy. The part of the sword which penetrates a ship's See also:side is almost always broken off and remains in the See also:wood, as the fish is unable to execute sufficiently powerful backward movements to See also:free itself by extracting the sword. In the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coasts of the See also:United States the See also:capture of swordfishes forms a See also:regular See also:branch of the fishing See also:industry. The object of the See also:fishery in the Mediterranean is the common See also:European swordfish (Xiphias giadius), the aver-See also:age See also:weight of which is about r cwt., and which is abundant off the Sicilian coasts and on the opposite See also:coast of See also:Calabria. Two methods are employed—that by harpoons, chiefly used for larger fish, and that by peculiarly constructed nets called palamitare. This fishery is very productive: a See also:company of fishermen frequently capture from twenty to fifty fish in a single See also:day, and the See also:average See also:annual catch in See also:Sicily and Calabria is reported to be 140,000 kilogrammes (138 tons). The products of the fishery are consumed principally in a fresh See also:state, but a portion is preserved in See also:salt or oil. The flesh of the swordfish is much preferred to that of the tunny, and always commands a high See also:price. This species is occasionally captured on the British coast.

On the coast of the United States a different species, Histiophorus gladius, occurs; it is a larger fish than the Mediterranean swordfish, attaining to a length of from 7 to 12 ft. and an average weight of 300 or 400 lb. It is captured only by the use of the See also:

harpoon. From See also:forty to fifty vessels, schooners of some 5o tons, are annually engaged in this fishery, with an aggregate catch amounting annually to about 3400 swordfishes, of a value of $4,000. The flesh of this species is inferior in flavour to that of the Mediterranean species, and is principally consumed after having been preserved in salt or brine. Useful and detailed See also:information on the swordfish fishery can be obtained from A. T. Tozzetti, " La Pesca See also:nei mari d'Italia e lapesca all' estero esercitata da Italiani," in Catalogo esposizione internazionale di pesca in Berlino (1880); also from La Pesca del pesce-spada nello Stretto di See also:Messina (Messina, 1880), and from G. See also:Brown Goode, " Materials for a See also:History of the Sword-fish," in See also:Report of the See also:Commissioner of Fish and See also:Fisheries, pt. viii. (See also:Washington, 1883). (A. C.

End of Article: SWORDFISH

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