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A swordfish swims faster than a car on the highway

You get in the car with your dad, he's driving 90 kilometers per hour on the highway. Now imagine a fish overtaking that car! A swordfish can reach speeds of up to 130 kilometers per hour - it's the fastest fish in the open ocean. It can swim across a football field in 3 seconds.

How does it do it? The secret is in its shape. Its «sword» is an elongated upper jaw, smooth as a real sword. It cuts through water like a knife cuts through butter. And the body of a swordfish is streamlined: no unnecessary protrusions. Even its eyes are in special recesses so as not to «slow down.».

And the swordfish is one of the few fish that can warm its own eyes! It has a special organ near its eyes that keeps the temperature there 10-15 degrees higher than the water. Why? To see better in the cold depths. Its vision becomes 10 times sharper when its eyes are warm. Imagine: you put on heated glasses and the world becomes clearer.

A swordfish can dive 800 meters — that's like a 200-story skyscraper down. It's dark and cold there, only 2 degrees. But its warm eyes help it hunt even in the dark.

Interestingly, a swordfish is born tiny — only 4 millimeters! Smaller than a fingernail. But it grows to 4 meters and 600 kilograms. That is, it increases 1000 times!

When you see a photo of a swordfish, remember: you are seeing a living torpedo of the ocean.