356 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Swordfish are summer fish on the North Ameri- 

 can coast like the tuna, and their presence (often 

 reported) in the blue water 72 between the outer 

 edge of the continent and the inner edge of the 

 Gulf Stream proper, ofT southern New England 

 and the Gulf of Maine, added to the fact that few 

 are seen along the coast south of New York, makes 

 it likely that they come in from offshore, direct. 



They appear about simultaneously off New 

 York, off Block Island, on Nantucket Shoals, and 

 on Georges Bank, sometime between the 25th 

 of May and the 20th of June, but seldom on the 

 Scotian Banks until somewhat later, or in the inner 

 parts of the Gulf of Maine before July. They are 

 most numerous in July and August, and they van- 

 ish at the approach of cold weather. None have 

 ever been reported east of Cape Cod after the 

 first half of November, so far as we can learn (in 

 1875 one was taken on Georges in November in 

 a snowstorm) 73 and most of them are gone by the 

 last week in October, though some fish have been 

 taken off New York and New Jersey in December 

 and even in January. A case in point is that 13 

 were entangled in long lines set for tilefish in 

 95 to 125 fathoms off Long Island between De- 

 cember 20, 1921, and January 1, 1922. 74 



General report has it that the fish caught early 

 in the season average not only thinner but con- 

 siderably smaller than those caught later, a phe- 

 nomenon still awaiting satisfactory explanation. 76 



Nearly all the swordfish that visit us weigh 

 upwards of 50 to 60 pounds. One of 6 pounds 

 7 ounces, taken by the schooner Anna on Georges 

 Bank, August 9, 1922 (now or formerly to be seen 

 at the Boston Fish Bureau); a second of 7 pounds, 

 taken by the schooner Courtney on a long line, 

 on Browns Bank in 1931; a third of 1){ pounds, 

 taken on a long line by the Dacia on Western Bank, 

 early in September 1931; and a fourth 28K inches 

 long to tip of lower jaw (its sword was broken off 

 short), weighing 5% pounds, caught by the 

 trawler Winchester, August 15, 1951, on the south- 

 east part of Georges Bank in a haul which fished 

 at 46 fathoms 76 are the smallest Gulf of Maine 



and Nova Scotian specimens of which we have 

 heard. Goode 77 also reported a sword, only 3% 

 inches long, found sticking in the nostril of a 

 mackerel shark caught at Gloucester, probably 

 picked up somewhere off southern New England 

 for this particular shark does not ordinarily range 

 farther south than that. 78 In the Mediterranean, 

 however, young fry as small as half a pound are 

 often brought to market. 



It is generally believed that swordfish come di- 

 rectly in from the open seas when they appear on 

 the offshore banks in spring; a few to enter the 

 Gulf of Maine, but the majority to work slowly 

 eastward along the outer part of the continental 

 shelf. When they depart in autumn it is to return 

 to the open Atlantic, but they are never seen on 

 then journey offshore, or southward; they simply 

 drop out of sight as the tuna do. 



No ripe fish, male or female, have ever been seen 

 off our coast. The ovaries and spermaries of most 

 of those examined 79 have shown no signs of ap- 

 proaching maturity; most of the fishermen, too, of 

 whom we have inquired have assured us that they 

 have never seen "spawn" in swordfish, though they 

 had dressed hundreds. And while the captures of 

 3 fish with ovaries containing eggs in early stages 

 of development have been reported, one brought 

 into Provincetown in September 1909, a second 

 with ovaries weighing 15 pounds, brought to New 

 Bedford on June 25, 1922, 80 and a third of about 

 150 pounds killed off Marthas Vineyard in July 

 1924, events of this sort are so unusual that they 

 cause wide comment. 



Evidently the swordfish that summer off our 

 coasts spawn during the part of the year when they 

 are elsewhere; probably in the subtropical parts 

 of the Atlantic basin, for Lutken 81 found swordfish 

 fry as small as 10 mm. (evidently hatched only a 

 short time previous) between the latitudes of 20° 

 and 39° N. The fact that the fish are thin when 

 they return to us in spring, but fatten during the 

 summer stay, is further evidence that they are 

 spent before they appear off our coasts. 



Abundance. — Our only clue to the numbers of 

 swordfish that visit our waters is the poundage 



'2 This Is often spoken of as the "Gulf Stream"; Its more accurate name Is 

 the "slope water." 



« Rich, Proe. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 4, Part 2, 1947, p. 58. 



»< Townsend, Science, N. Ser., vol. 56, 1922, pp. 18-19. 



» Rich (Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 4, Pt. 2, 1947, p. 43) Is "Inclined 

 to think" that there are two or more "distinct year-schools" In our waters. 



" Reported to us by George Kelley of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

 The specimen is in Its collection In Woods Hole. 



" Ftsh. lnd. U. S., Sect. 1, 1884, p. 348. 



" See Rich (Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 4, Pt. 2, 1947, pp. 37-39) 

 for additional records of small Gulf of Maine swordfish. 



76 Many have been opened with this point In mind; some by us. 



«o Townsend, Science, N. Ser., vol. 60, 1922, pp. 18-19. 



» Spolla Atlantica, In Kong. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skrlft, Ser. 5, Nat. 

 Math. Sect., vol. 12, No. 6, 1880, pp. 444-445. 



