FISHERY BULLETIN; VOL. 79. NO 2 



109»15 



Figure 3.— Track of swordfish no. 3 (solid line) superimposed on track of swordfish no. 2 (dotted line), Baja California. No. 3 was on 

 the bottom during much of the indicated 8-h period. The narrow solid lines near the track (dotted line) of no. 2 indicate positions 

 where it was moving slowly on the .surface at night. Dots represent sunset; circles represent sunrise. Ticks at 1-h intervals, bottom 

 contours in fathoms. 



drive it dov^oi with the boat, but it sank just a few 

 meters and avoided us. When hard pressed, it 

 easily escaped in a series of long horizontal leaps, 

 but did not go below a few meters depth until it 

 had been on the surface for about 1 h. 



Swordfish No. 7, 9-11 November 1977, 

 Atlantic Ocean 



This 70 kg swordfish was taken by longline 

 about 100 km northeast of Cape Hatteras (lat. 

 36°00' N, long. 74°40' W) in a depth of 1,000 m 

 (Figure 6). The fishing gear was left in the water 

 for only 1 h to reduce the time that the fish would 



be struggling on the line. The fish was hooked in 

 the tip of the lower jaw, a place where little 

 damage would be expected; its bluish color and 

 active movement gave the impression that it was 

 in good condition. It was tagged with a depth 

 transmitter and cut free within about 15 s after 

 it had been brought alongside the boat. 



The longline had been set in a patch of warm 

 blue water (Figures 6, 7). When released the fish 

 swam in a general southeast direction, a course 

 which took it under a tongue of cold, grey-green 

 shelf water. After several course changes, it came 

 out from under this cold water on the second day 

 and entered the Gulf Stream which swept it to 



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