A Two-Metre Swordfish Turned Up on a Haida Gwaii Shore
Quinn Barabash, a filmmaker and outdoorsperson, made headlines after finding the carcass of a nearly two-metre-long swordfish on the remote shores of Haida Gwaii, in northern British Columbia.
The location is the surprise. Swordfish are large-bodied and highly migratory, typically at home in temperate and warmer tropical waters far south of Haida Gwaii. The Conversation Canada notes they are thought to have been documented in British Columbia only twice before, which is what makes a carcass on a northern beach worth a second look.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The plausible explanation offered is not exotic: long-term ocean warming, alongside a developing El Niño, may be making B.C.'s waters more attractive to these warm-water species.
There is precedent for that reading. During the 2014-16 marine heatwave known as the Blob, ocean sunfish, Humboldt squid and triggerfish were all sighted off B.C.; more recently, tropical barracuda and a great white shark have been spotted too.