Museum Notes

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22429, 16 June 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

Museum Notes

(By R. A. Falla)

A cast of a large broadbill swordfish has recently been placed on exhibition In the Museum. Some years ago a smaller swordfish of the Species known as the striped marlin was obtained, and these two fish now make a sLlkinß display. It is known that swordfish can move With remarkable speed througn the Water, and there Is

STREAMLINE IN NATURE

00 douot that then ability to do this depends not only on their propulsive power of the flns, but also on the efficiency of the streamlined shape of thfe flsn v\ hich offers a minimum .Of resistance tq the water. The body - tapers , away beautifully from its widest point and the tail are to be seen two projections sideways. These

are sin-ilnr to the bilge-keels fitted into ships, and serve to prevent rolling and generally to increase stability when the fish is travelling at a high sneed. Swordfish are summer visitors to New Zealand seas, but they range widely over the warmer waters of the Pacific and of the utter g:?at oceans.

The specimen recently added to the Museum collection was washed ashore at Hokitika early this year, and is thus a record .from further south than usual. Its weight was about 8001 b, which is some 321 b less than the world’s record, caught with a rod and line off the coast of Chile some years ago.