Swordfish survives with body full of horror holes

Fishermen were stunned when they caught a swordfish full of holes, the culprit was likely a special species of shark .

Fishermen pull the strange swordfish onto the boat. (Video: TK Offshore Fishing).

While fishing in the Coral Sea, Australia, Captain TK Walker and his crew encountered an unusual animal, Newsweek reported on July 21. After pulling a large swordfish out of the water, they discovered that its body had dozens of oval holes, like the work of a cookie cutter. "I have never seen an attack like this in my 40 years of working ," Walker shared.

The culprit was almost certainly a cookie cutter shark ( Isistius brasiliensis ) , also known as a cigar shark , or rather a whole school of them. 'It must have been a group attack. They were after more than just a snack ,' Walker said.

Cookie cutter sharks are small, cigar-shaped creatures that rarely grow longer than 2 feet (0.5 meters), according to the Shark Research Institute (SRI). They are found in tropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans.

Swordfish with many gouges on its body.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of this animal is its unusual feeding strategy. The underside of the cookie cutter shark has small glowing organs called photophores . These produce a green glow on the shark's underside, which it uses to attract other fish.

The teeth of the cookie cutter shark are also very unusual. They have 37 small teeth in their upper jaw, while their lower jaw has larger triangular teeth that are joined at the base, like a cookie cutter. After luring in their prey, the shark uses its sucking mouth and sharp teeth to latch onto the target's body, then twists its body 360 degrees to remove a chunk of flesh. This way, they can attack much larger species such as tuna, swordfish, dolphins, and other sharks.

'They swoop in while the fish is swimming, take a bite of flesh and then bite again before the larger fish can react. I can imagine it like mosquitoes buzzing around swordfish and large tuna ,' Walker said.

According to Walker, this shark is relatively common in the Coral Sea. "We see these bites every day and usually the fish will have three or four new bites, plus many that have healed or are healing ," he said.

However, it is rare for a fish to have as many fresh bite marks as the swordfish Walker caught. " It was still alive when we pulled it aboard. The bite marks were still bleeding so it was very recent ," Walker said.