Small body, big appetite

While fishing in about 1,400 feet of water off the South Coast of Grand Cayman, a lone fisherman’s attention was drawn to an object that was floating on the surface nearby. He motored over to investigate and picked up a dead fish that simply amazed him. It is now also astonishing scientists all over the world.

In the belly of the fish was another fish, and this one was clearly much, much bigger. In fact when it was measured it was determined that the fish he picked up had eaten a ‘snake mackerel’ that was more than four times its own length. “When I first saw it I really couldn’t believe my eyes,” said the dumbfounded fisherman. “It had obviously just died, so I decided I had to put it in the boat and take it down to the local authorities to investigate it further.”


Marine scientists snapped some photographs and sent them up to their research partner in the U.S.A. A short time later, their partner wrote back saying the fish “was appropriately called a ‘Great Swallower’ and it normally lives in deep water.”

The scientists was clearly excited by the pictures they were looking at. “This is amazing! I have seen this fish with big prey before but yours takes the cake. It would surely rank as one of the largest, if not the largest, rations known among all fishes (relative to their own weight).” The scientist added that it was likely “the finding would be written up in a scientific paper” and then wondered how the Great Swallower avoided being eaten by the Snake Mackerel.

The Great Swallower found off South Sound was just 7.5 inches in length. The fish it had eaten, an extremely aggressive snake mackerel, measured 34 inches, which is close to three feet in length. Local marine scientists were in awe of the smaller fish’s appetite.

This is great. I would hate to see what a three–foot–long Great Swallower is capable of eating. Diving anyone?

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