Selezioni

Pescespada - swordfish
Swordfish are magnificent creatures: they hunt the ocean depths using their enormous eyes, warmed by an ingenious heating system, and a sword-like bill, used both for slicing and just like an antenna, with sensory ability. A swordfish can grow to 500 kg and live for more than 25 years.
Unfortunately these animals are now in serious trouble. In the Mediterranean sea they used to be hunted with harpoons but more recently drift nets (which gave rise to the plague of high percentage of bycatch – sharks, turtles, seabirds) and now longlines are employed. Nowdays ever more often undersized swordfish are caught and sold.
These pictures were shot in Italy, in Carloforte (Sardinia) and in Favignana (Sicily) when swordfish enter the Tonnara (tuna traps).Some get entangled in the nets and are taken to the surface by divers, others are harvested together with the tunas during the “Mattanza”.
The swordfish has a reputation of being an extremely lunatic animal, prone to attack anything that for any reason disturbs him. In this respect there are several accounts of whales, fish and boats attacked by the fish, possibly the most famous episode involving the Alvin submersible.

tonn63	SW3
SW10	tonn52
sw6	sw7
tonn42	sw18
tonn47	sw5
sw11	sw1
tonn71	sw1