Swordfish

Photo: iSea · © all rights reserved

Xiphias gladius transits the waters north of Heraklion in summer, occasionally approaching the shelf edge at dawn to intercept spawning aggregations of bogue and sardine before retreating to deep water during daylight hours. Swordfish encounters at recreational depths are rare across the entire Mediterranean but documented at this specific site by multiple operators during July and August, likely linked to the cold-water intrusion that concentrates prey near the shelf break. The species is one of the apex open-ocean predators of the Mediterranean, reaching 4.5 m and 650 kg, and even a distant sighting at the shelf edge constitutes one of the most significant wildlife encounters available to a Mediterranean diver.