The swordfish (Xiphias gladius), also known as the broadbill[5] in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill.

[4][6][11] The International Game Fish Association's all-tackle angling record for a swordfish was a 536 kg (1,182 lb) specimen taken off Chile in 1953.

[citation needed] Swordfish prefer water temperatures between 18 and 22 °C (64 and 72 °F),[3] but have the widest tolerance among billfish, and can be found from 5 to 27 °C (41 to 81 °F).

[6] Swordfish feed daily, most often at night, when they rise to surface and near-surface waters in search of smaller fish.

In addition to remoras, lampreys, and cookiecutter sharks, this includes a wide range of invertebrates, such as tapeworms, roundworms, Myxozoans and copepods.

larvae identified by genetic markers, could be used as biological tags and support the existence of a Mediterranean swordfish stock.

[6][23] Intensive fishery may be driving swordfishes and sharks into harder competition for reduced amounts of prey and therefore pitting them to fight more.

[32] Many sources, including the United States Food and Drug Administration, warn about potential toxicity from high levels of methylmercury in swordfish.

Swordfish meat is relatively firm, and can be cooked in ways more fragile types of fish cannot (such as over a grill on skewers).

The color of the flesh varies by diet, with fish caught on the East Coast of North America often being rosier.

The 17th-century Turkish Sephardi halakhic authority Rabbi Chaim ben Yisrael Benvenisti wrote that "It is a widespread custom among all Jews to eat the fish with the sword, known in vernacular as fishei espada, even though it does not have any scales.

The following year, Rabbi Yosef Kanowitz published the same list of kosher fish with swordfish still included.

Orthodox opinion began to shift in 1951, when Rabbi Moshe Tendler examined swordfish and decided it was not kosher due to the lack of scales.

Swordfish was and possibly still is consumed by Jews in Italy, Turkey, Gibraltar, Morocco, Tunisia, and England.

Due to Tendler's opinion, swordfish are generally not considered kosher by Orthodox Jews in the United States and Israel.

[38] In 1998, the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council and SeaWeb hired Fenton Communications to conduct an advertising campaign to promote their assertion that the swordfish population was in danger due to its popularity as a restaurant entree.

The advertising campaign was repeated by the national media in hundreds of print and broadcast stories, as well as extensive regional coverage.

Subsequently, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service proposed a swordfish protection plan that incorporated the campaign's policy suggestions.

Then-US President Bill Clinton called for a ban on the sale and import of swordfish and in a landmark decision by the federal government, 343,600 km2 (132,670 sq mi) of the Atlantic Ocean were placed off-limits to fishing as recommended by the sponsors.

In the North Atlantic, the swordfish stock is fully rebuilt, with biomass estimates currently 5% above the target level.

Overfishing is likely occurring in the Indian Ocean, and fishing mortality exceeds the maximum recommended level in the Mediterranean, thus these stocks are considered of high conservation concern.

[42] In 2007, a fisherman died after being attacked by a swordfish which pierced his eye and its bill penetrated into the man's skull.

[43] In 2024, Giulia Manfrini, an Italian surfer died in a rare incident after being struck by a swordfish while surfing off the coast of West Sumatra, Indonesia.