Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
A huge eyeball found on a Florida beach last week by a local resident is believed to be from a swordfish, according to the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
On Monday, FWC experts said based on the color of the eye, its size and structure, and along with the presence of bone around it, the animal most-likely associated with it was the large, predatory sport fish. The FWC said DNA testing is currently underway to confirm the finding.
Early speculation from officials, as well as Gino Covacci, who found the peculiar peeper, was that the eyeball was from a giant squid. But after examinations, experts said the eyeball didn´t quite fit the squid profile, according to a statement by Joe Herrera, a curator with FWC´s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Herrera said because of the straight cuts on the bone around the eyeball, experts believe an angler cut it out of a swordfish and tossed it overboard. It also fits for the location, he noted, as swordfish are frequently found in the Florida Straits off South Florida this time of year, near where the eyeball turned up on Pompano Beach.
The FWC´s initial finding mirrors that of Charles Messing, a professor at Nova Southeastern University´s Oceanographic Center, who told Florida’s Sun Sentinel newspaper on Friday he believed, based on images of various sea creatures, that the eyeball belonged to a swordfish.
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