Pugnacity of Marlins and Swordfish

Abstract

FROM a wide area of the sea there have been reported occasional incidents illustrating the pugnacity of marlins and swordfish. This has been supported by recent evidence from South African seas, as a result of the Second World War, when a number of ships from the East were torpedoed in the Mozambique Channel. From these vessels quantities of bales of rubber were left floating awash, and from that time many thousands have continually been stranded, over an enormous stretch of the coast of South and East Africa. A good many bales must have remained in eddies, since even to-day they continue to come ashore. It was soon noticed that many bales contained the tips of spears of marlins, and it now appears that the longer a bale remains in the sea the more broken spears it is likely to contain, for those cast ashore in recent times have held as many as four. Most of these residues have been the tips broken near the front of the spear.