{"id":261220,"date":"2026-01-31T16:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/261220\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T16:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:20:08","slug":"huge-black-marlin-washes-ashore-near-birdlings-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/261220\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge black marlin washes ashore near Birdlings Flat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A rare and massive black marlin has been discovered washed up on a Canterbury beach, stunning an early morning walker who came across the extraordinary sight just after dawn.<\/p>\n<p>Christchurch resident Jack Stewart has come across the fish at about 5am while walking along Kaitorete Spit, south of Birdlings Flat.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46705\" class=\"wp-image-46705 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Supplied-Chris-Lynch-Media-23.png.webp.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"854\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-46705\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Jack Stewart<\/p>\n<p>Stewart said the marlin was enormous, measuring about 3 metres from its eyes to the base of its tail, not including its bill or the widest part of the tail.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am 6ft2 laying beside it,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust in awe of the size really, first time I had seen a marlin other than TV and it was just so impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stewart believed the fish may have come ashore during the high tide at about 3am.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing told its unheard of in these parts to see a black marlin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWater generally too cold down here for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Photos shared with chrislynchmedia.com showed the huge fish lying on the sand, with Stewart pictured beside it to give a sense of scale.<\/p>\n<p>Black marlin are usually found in warmer waters and are rarely seen so far south, making the discovery an unusual sight for the Canterbury coastline.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rare and massive black marlin has been discovered washed up on a Canterbury beach, stunning an early&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[373,111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-261220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}