Squid Sucker-Marks On Swordfish

More sucker-marks?



I question the idea because the rings are aligned so closely with the color demarcation between dorsal and ventral areas of the sword's skin. I don't know if rings like those are a "natural" pattern of markings. If they are squid scars, they would indicate a squid that has a single row of suckers down the lengths of the arms, and that the sword had struck the squid so that one of its arms stretched down the length of the sword's body and gripped it. The slightly irregular spacing of the rings might indicate suckers on short stalks, and there do appear to be a few points on the ring interiors. There could be faint rings below the sharp row, visible on the left end of the pattern (first photo), suggesting that the squid had biserial suckers that found traction with but one row. Compared with the first sample, these rings are a bit smaller in diameter.

The first swordfish sample was much more clear-cut a squid pattern, since the rings were biserial, ran vertically, showed clear tooth points, and were located closer to the mouth of the fish. So, I think the marks on the new sample are sucker rings, but I'm not fully confident of that.

The photos were adjusted in brightness, contrast, and midtone settings to bring out detail.

Clem
 

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Here's a new one.

This swordfish came into the shop on Saturday. The sucker marks appeared as a cluster below the left pectoral fin, which had been cut out.



What have we got, here? Not obvious in these photos are the minute punctures that constitute each ring; the dentition on these sucks was very fine, and doesn't show the enlarged teeth of, say, Dosidicus. Zoom in and you'll see what I'm talking about. We've got two medial rows of large suckers, and much smaller sucker marks on the outer margins of the medial rows. I think we're looking at the stamp left by the manus and dactylus of a sizable tentacular club. Thoughts?

Clem
 

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This is an awesome thread, sorry I've been missing it. What kind of "shop" is this?

I don't know about post #16, but the rest do indeed look like squid sucker marks.

How many swordfish typically come through this shop? Do you get to inspect every one? Curious how often you see something like this.

Adam Clem, Swordfish Inspector :smoke:
 
And, here's one for OB: The signature of the wily cookie-cutter shark. This section was cut from a sworfish's belly, on the same day that the latest sucker-marked sword came into the shop. A good day for pop-up marine bio lessons.



Clem
 

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Wicked, isn't it? Not long ago a man attempting a channel swim between two Hawaiian islands (at night, mind you) was nailed by a cookie-cutter shark. He lost a scoop of his calf. Very nasty.

Clem
 
TONMO, I've come around to accepting #16 as a squid stamp. The "shop" is an excellent fish-market on Cape Cod. I work there. We're told that all of our swordfish is Atlantic in origin, and that none of it was ever frozen, but we don't buy that one, anymore. I now think that the older posts showed swordfish caught in the Pacific and marked by a really big ommastrephid like Dosidicus. Atlantic swords do encounter O. bartrami during their sub-tropical holidays, but bartrami doesn't get big enough to leave scars like the ones we've see. The latest specimen was stamped by some other very large squid, and I don't believe it was an ommastrephid.

*As for the occurrence of such scarring, I've seen most of it during winters, and during the winter I'd say the incidence of sucker-scarring among all of the swordfish we get (and we get a lot) is something like one in forty.

Clem
 
Any chance the swordfish spend time in both oceans? Some sharks can do a lot of traveling but I don't know the extent of the farthest nor anything about swordfish (other than I know we have them in the Atlantic and I have seen one in a pen in the aquarium in Key West :oops:)
 
http://adl.brs.gov.au/data/warehouse/brsShop/data/12908_02-swordfishreport.pdf

Extract: "The level of mixing between swordfish in the Indian Ocean and the swordfish stocks of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is unclear. Large, permanently-cold water masses, like those occurring south of South America, probably present barriers to large-scale mixing of swordfish between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Indian Ocean swordfish are believed to regularly move with the warm Aguhlas Current that sweeps around South Africa into the Atlantic Ocean (Penny and Griffiths 1998, p. 1). The 14oC average monthly sea surface isotherm extends south of Australia, at least during late February–May. Although they are rarely caught south of Australia, movement of swordfish through the area cannot be discounted. A study currently under way, using both mtDNA and microsatellite variation, should reveal the genetic similarities and dissimilarities between swordfish occurring off eastern and western Australia (Dr B. Ward, 16 March 2000)."

I can't help but wonder about possible swordfish interactions with Architeuthis. According to Kubodera and Mori there are records of Architeuthis remains caught by long-liners going after billfish; they don't specify what kind(s) of billfish they were, but records demonstrate that there is some overlap in the water column. Could a mature sword take down Architeuthis? I think so; swords are very solid, stout animals with a long, hard weapons for rostrums. I wonder how many of the incidences of Architeuthis being snared by long-liners were the results of the squid being attracted to the lures, and how many were the results of the squid feeding on hooked billfish and becoming ensnared themselves.

Clem
 
Do they live deep? I know the ones I have seen in Key West were in pretty warm water (shallow) and the article mentions avoidance of cold so I would not think they would interact often. I can't see a squid winning against one though. I have seen feeding demonstrations and they are real hedge trimmers with that rostrum/saw blade so I would assume the fight goes to the shark and the squid looses its tentacles for most encounters. Can you tell how fresh the wounds are when you see them? If they look fresh, your long line theory might be the only time a squid stays in one piece.
 
Interesting to note that an individual squid bite would not look very dissimilar, but you'd expect a cluster, surrounded by radiating sucker ring marks. Clem, if you're on, sleeper sharks apparently employ a similar biting technique to cookiecutters. Sleepers, however, grow to unknown sizes, but at least exceeding 21 feet...
 
Do they live deep?

during the day we swordfish for them in 1800 - 2000 feet of water with dead baits. Then at night we catch them with live bait on the surface.....squid has always proven to be one of the best baits for catching them, we also often find eels and hake in there stomachs

loving this thread very interesting.
 
I am not so sure I would like this job. It might make me afraid to go into the ocean seeing what one fish does to another. As it is, I just look around and enjoy and don't think about what might be lurking that I don't see. Actually seeing damage might give me second thoughts ...
 

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