Fish with weapons
A number of kinds of fish have long noses. But not just ordinary long
noses. Their noses are weapons—swords and spears!
A swordfish is a big, torpedo-shaped creature that averages from six
feet (1.8 meters) to twelve feet (3.6 m) or more in length. Its sword,
which is really its upper jaw, makes up a third of its body length. The
sword has a flat blade, just like a real sword. The fish uses this sword
to get its food.
The swordfish swims along until it finds a school of small fish, such as
herring or mackerel. It then rushes among them, lashing about with its
sword. Some fish are stunned by blows, others are gashed and crippled so
that they can’t swim. Some are actually stabbed. The swordfish then
gobbles up all the stunned and floundering fish that can’t get away.
The sword of a swordfish is really a very dangerous weapon. The fish are
big and strong, and have been known to punch their swords right through
the wooden planks of small boats. Once, a dead shark was found with the
broken-off sword of a swordfish stuck into its body. Probably the shark
had tried to eat the swordfish, as some sharks do, and was killed by the
swordfish’s weapon.
The long, sharp noses of sailfish, marlin, and spearfish are round, like
a spear. These fish use their spears to get food in much the same way
the swordfish uses its sword.
The sawfish has a long, flat blade that has a row of teeth along each
edge. A sawfish uses this blade as both a tool and a weapon. It clubs
small fish with it, as swordfish and spearfish do. But it also uses it
to dig in the • ■ sea bottom for clams and other shellfish.
