Distribution of larval swordfish, Xiphias gladius, and probable spawning off the southeastern United States

The retrospective assignment of collections of larval swordfish, Xiphias gladius, taken from 1973 to 1980, to water types and area of the Gulf Stream front, as well as three sets of contemporary collections taken in 1984, 1988, and 1997, indicated that larvae were collected most frequently within the western Gulf Stream frontal zone. Larval swordfish accumulate by localized hydrodynamic convergence, rather than localized spawning, and thus these rare, surface-oriented larvae are found more frequently within the frontal zone. Lengths of larval swordfish taken from curatorial collections, from contemporary collections, and from published records from the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the western North Atlantic, as well as assumptions about growth rates and Gulf Stream transport, indicated that swordfish may spawn as far north as Cape Hatteras