The state of swordfishing today?

[Questor]

Mr. Dahlberg:

What is the state of swordfishing today? I mean actual swordfish, not billfish in general. I just read a book called Fishing Behind th Eight Ball by Harlan Major, and it has a story about fishing for swordfish during the 1930s along the coast of Chile. Sounds like they had a great fishery at that time.

Can you reasonably expect to charter a boat in swordfish waters and expect to catch a fish in about a week?

Thanks as always.

[dahlberg]

Hi Q,
In the '30's , compared to now, the ocean was overflowing with all kinds of fish!
The large swordies have been crushed in most places I know of, but as you no doubt have heard, many juvies are being caught off the florida coast.
I've seen the most swordies in Venezuela, and some big ones.
New Zealand also has some very large fish, which I was planning to fish this year but couldn't find a shooter with an open schedule!
I'm sure if you concentrated on strictly swords in decent water you'd catch more than one in a week.
best,
L

[Questor]

Thanks. I may have a new ambition in life.

By the way, I used to go spear fishing in the keys during the early 1970s and later learned that I helped decimate the fish population there. We would routinely take sea turtles (it was not a federal crime or any other crime back then). In 1988, after being away from it for about 15 years I went back as a scuba diver, not to spear but just to see. I was appalled at what we had done. There were so few of the large fish we used to take for granted. I have lamented it since and have become quite conservation minded as a result of those experiences.