We have a mystery seemingly solved and the winner is: Swordfish!
Earlier this month I brought you the slightly creepy and definitely odd story of a giant eyeball found on a beach in Florida.
Live Science.Com has reported on the identification process and a likely answer is in:
Fish and wildlife officials have pinpointed the likely source of a giant blue eyeball that washed ashore on a Florida beach last week. After examinations, researchers said they believe the mysterious orb was cut from a swordfish and tossed overboard by a fisherman.
In the Atlantic Ocean swordfish can reach a whopping 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms), and at this time of year it’s common for fishers to catch them off the coast of south Florida, according to the FWC. The agency said genetic testing will be done to confirm the identification.
“You usually don’t find random floating eyes of any animal,”
Thanks for that.
Biologist Sönke Johnsen of Duke University… was cautious about making a judgment based on the photos but said, “I’m fairly sure it’s just the eye of a large xiphid, likely a swordfish or marlin.”
“They get seriously big, but people don’t realize it because most of the eye is inside the head,” he wrote in an email to LiveScience.
Squid eyes also can get seriously huge — in fact, they are often much larger than swordfish eyes. Scientists reported earlier this year that the giant squid can have basketball-size peepers, likely as a way to spot predators like sperm whales in their dim undersea homes.
Poor Architeuthis, never gets any good press.
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