Barry Island Swordfish!

The recent washing ashore of a broadbill swordfish on Barry Island Beach, South Wales seems to have been reported by some media outlets as a rare fish in European waters, but this is not really accurate.

Swordfish are found in both tropical and temperate waters around the world and seem tolerant of sea temperatures as low as 13 degrees, well within those found of our coasts. Swordfish are also commercially long-lined over the Flemish Cap in the North Atlantic. There is also a swordfish fishery inside the Mediterranean and off the Portuguese coast.

The 224cm long Barry Island swordfish would have weighed in the region of 130lbs as they have a dense body mass. This is not the first broadbill to wash ashore here in the UK either. Back in 1905 a swordfish was found off Newport, and as recent as 2003 a still alive but close to death swordfish was found stranded at Rhossili Beach on the Gower, but died some time after.

There have been sightings of healthy swordfish in Welsh waters before too, particularly one seen at close quarters on the surface off Amlwch, Anglesey in October 1989 which subsequently dived as the boat approached, and one seen in the middle of St Georges Channel by a commercial vessel working out of Newquay in September 1988.

Swordfish have also washed ashore several times in Ireland with juvenile and adult fish found in Co Kerry on Inch Strand and at Achill Island, and live fish have again been seen on the surface finning out off the Blasket Islands in Kerry and off Bills Rocks at Achill. A 130lb fish was recorded caught in salmon nets in Bantry Bay, Co Cork, Ireland in 1950, and another in a salmon net off Porturlin, Co Mayo in 1992, and they used to show up frequently in the holds of Norwegian long-line vessels fishing the Continental Shelf areas off the west of Ireland when they were targeting sharks.

This all goes to show that swordfish in our waters are not as rare as some reports make out, more that swordfish anywhere in the World are not common, but certainly cannot be classed as rare off the UK and Irish coast.

It’s highly probable that swordfish could be caught on rod and line if anglers in the UK and Ireland actually targeted them with techniques that have proved successful elsewhere such as deep dropping with squid baits or rays bream at night using cyalume light sticks as attractors. Currently, to my knowledge, no one is trying for swordfish here with rod and line.

Why do these fish wash ashore then? Knowledgeable anglers and sea going people will tell you that just like dolphin and porpoise, juvenile swordfish, and occasionally adult swordfish, tend to wash up after prolonged periods of bad weather and heavy seas, and so far this summer that’s about all we’ve had, bad weather!. It could be that these are diseased or weak fish struggling to find food, or with some other internal disorder, but the link is always the bad weather and heavy sea conditions that triggers their washing ashore.

It’s unlikely though, that we’ll ever see a swordfish rod and line fishery here in the UK. The current cost of diesel and the time required to fish the greatest of all sea fish is cost prohibitive to all but the exceptionally wealthy, and technically we have very few boats, if any, with the right equipment to take these fish seriously.