The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1904-10-28
HOW SWORDFISH ARE TAKEN
The Fishermen Watch for Their Wav-
ing Dorsal Fin, Then Throw
Their Spears

In all that blue and dancing water of
the open ocean between Montauk Point,
on the east end of Long island and
Block island, No Mans Land and Mar
tha's Vineyard, the swordfish is at
home in the summer months. That is,
the grown-up swordfsh is; nobody
ever saw a. really little one there, says
the Hartford Courant. They show up
as visitors to this country when they
reach say Is pounds in weight. 1t is
said that the young are found only in
the Mediterranean. How the mature
ones learned the attractions of sum-
mer at the New England coast resorts
is to be guessed by those who have
active imaginations, and how the fish
find their way over here year after
year is equally puzzling.
They come and feed on the squid,
young mackerel and other objects of
interest that they encounter This fat
tening diet moves them along to a
weight Of sometimes as much as 500
pounds. With their swords and thei"
amazing powers Of locomotion they
have no fear of anything, and they lie
on top Of the ocean as serene as if
there was nothing else in creation. The
big black dorsal fin waves gracefully
to and fro in the air as the fish lies
there, and often the tail sticks out al
most as conspicuously: That is what
gives them away. It seems almost in
credible that on the great expanse of
the ocean Sc slight an object should be
noticeable, but it is discovering the
waving fins that the fish are found
The boats searching for them has a
lookout who scans the surface of the
sea and finds what he is looking for,
too. 1t indicates that there must be
q lot of fish about.
After a swordfsh has been sighted
the next thing to do is to keep him in
sight until the vessel can be brought
around behind him. Usually she is
uloving SO fast as to run past at first.
Sometimes the fish sees her and
quickly sinks himself out of sight, but
usually he stands by and the only trick
IS to keep the eye on him. The vessel
comes up behind to avoid disturbing
him, and when the bow is directly over
his idle and impassive majesty a skilled
hand takes up a lance and drives it
Town into his back The arrow shaped
Dart at the end dislodges itself from
the shaft, which comes back to the
vessel, and eff goes the sWordf1sh, with
she dart sticking to him like poor re-
iation.~ He is no longer a sleepy and
ioaflng idler, but a magnificent fish ex-
erting all his enormous powers to es-
cape.
A cask is tied to the rope, which has
the dat at its other end, and when the
fish is struck the cask is thrown over
board. Then away it sails, sometimes
,ut of sight and at other times skim
ming The water and making the foam
;1y as It dashes along. In the course of
zine ..he fish tires himself so that a
sailor puts out in a dory and picks up
The cask. Then he hauls slowly on the
rope lad gently brings his catch to the
top. # the fish is ugly. there is oppor-
tunit,y for lot of trouble. But if he
cors rs in peacably he soon gets a cut
in t2e throat from a sharp knife and
gofs out Of business summarily. Then
f,ie weighty body is hoisted aboard and
ne prize is secured. New York has
20 fancy for swordfish steak, which is
mighty good eating, but Boston is a
-:eady buyer, and the wholesale prices
range from six to eight to Is or 20
cents pound, according to the sup
ply.