A blue shark lived to tell the tale after a swordfish’s bill snapped off in its skull. Photos: Wikimedia Commons
In February, 2023, tuna fishermen in Vlorë, southern Albania pulled a blue shark onto their boat. The shark was still alive, but there was something a little off about it. The shark had a 7-inch piece of a swordfish’s bill, which is called a rostrum, stuck in its head. Although it’s usual for sharks to be released when they’re accidentally caught, this shark died on the fishing boat.
According to New Scientist, the unfortunate shark had a belly full of food, which meant it had been feeding normally even after it was skewered through the head.
“When I realized that there was a swordfish bill inside the shark’s head, I was astonished,” said Andrej Gajić, who works at Sharklab ADRIA Research Centre in Vlorë.“I’ve never encountered anything like this before, nor have I read about it in the literature.”
Gajić has overseen thousands of shark autopsies, so it’s rare for him to see something new when it comes to shark mortalities. Although this is the first time a shark has survived an injury exactly like the one in in Vlorë, there are eight recorded instances of blue sharks being lanced “in or near the shark’s head” by swordfish.
Gajić suspects that after the blue shark was impaled, the swordfish likely lifted its head quickly, snapping its rostrum off before it killed the shark. It’s likely that the wound occurred when the blue shark was attacking the swordfish, or possibly when both were feeding on the same prey.
“The blue shark (Prionace glauca) and swordfish (Xiphias gladius) are two large apex predators sharing the same pelagic environment and exhibiting partial dietary overlap,” wrote the authors of a paper examining the impalement, “which collectively lead to interactions that might include conflicts.”
