Fish
Swordfish
Xiphias gladius
Low danger🌊 30–180 m📏 up to 445 cm⏳ up to 15 yearsIUCN status: Least concern
Epipelagic zone
Its sharp bill, as long as a sword, lets it strike prey at full speed, making it one of the fastest fish in the ocean.
🗺️ Geographic range
All the world's tropical, temperate and occasionally cold seas.
📊 Population
Global population judged broadly stable by the IUCN thanks to relatively effective fisheries management in several oceans.
Habitat
- Atlantic Ocean · High seas / open water · Epipelagic zone · Migration
🥚 Reproduction
Spawns in warm water, several million eggs per spawning.
Behaviour
- Diet
- Squid and pelagic fish, caught by striking at high speed.
- Hunting
- Dives every day between surface and deep water to follow its prey.
- Communication
- Limited.
- Social life
- Solitary.
Physiology
- Anatomy
- A flat, tapering bill that can reach a third of the body's length.
- Respiration
- Gill respiration.
- Vision
- Eyes and brain warmed by a thermogenic organ, improving visual acuity at depth.
- Adaptations
- A brain-based organ actively warming the eyes and brain, a rare adaptation among fish.
🔗 Web of marine life
Predators
⚡ Its extraordinary abilities
- Actively warms its eyes and brain thanks to a unique thermogenic organ
- Among the fastest fish in the ocean thanks to its hydrodynamic body and bill
🏆 Records
One of the fastest fish in the ocean(unverified)
A hydrodynamic body and tapering bill allow remarkable bursts of speed.
Source: Ifremer
If you cross paths with this animal…
Risk: Low, no aggression toward humans unless cornered.
Behaviour: Wary.
Advice: A heavily fished species: choose sustainably sourced swordfish.
💡 Did you know?
- Its bill can pierce the wooden hull of small boats in accidental collisions.
- Makes a daily vertical migration between surface and depth to follow its prey.
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