: Sea fishing >> What types of fish do we catch? >> Swordfish (Xiphias gladius)

Swordfish (Xiphias gladius)

Iglun Iglun

The fish is from the Xiphiidae family and is its main representative. This fish is very esteemed in the world of sport fishing. Its habitat is the open sea where swordfish is the most powerful predator. It may reach the spectacular size of 455 cm length and 650 kg weight. It's characteristic for its upper jaw extention which takes the form of a big sabre (sword) by which it gained the name “swordfish“ and a short back fin.

The sword is used for attack and defence, it's very fast and agile, it lives in the deep (200 – 800 m), has big eyes and sharp eyesight and has special tissue on its ccular muscle which prevents losing warmth from the brain in the deep waters. The body is elongated with very strong tail flippers. Its colour is brownish-black from the upper side and lighter on the belly. A swordfish is a skilled predator and feasts mainly on fish, but also eats mollusks and crabs. In the Adriatic sea their numbers increase annually, as shown by fishing statistics  of Croatia.

We catch them with special techniques during mellow nights with full moon in the open sea. It may occure that a swordfish bites a troll in a tuna driff, but those cases are rear and sporadic.

Back