Total mercury was uniformly distributed in the edible muscle tissue of three swordfish, demonstrating that a small sample of muscle tissue taken from any region is representative of the whole muscle tissue when used for mercury analysis. The mean ± SE total mercury concentrations of longitudinal, depth, and transverse muscle sections from three swordfish were: 1.07 ± 0.04, 1.03 ± 0.04, and 0.99 ± 0.08 μg/g; 0.15 ± 0.01, 0.15 ± 0.03, and 0.14 ± 0.02 μg/g; and 0.55 ± 0.01, 0.61 ± 0.04, and 0.54 ± 0.06 μg/g, respectively.