Atlantic bluefin tuna have been caught off the coast of Yorkshire for the first time in an estimated 60 years.<\/p>\n
The giant fish had not been seen in the North Sea since the 1960s due to overfishing and the depletion of herring shoals, according to researchers from the University of Exeter who have now tagged six off Whitby.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the five-person crew on board The Dominator landed a whopping 338kg specimen before repeating the feat a day later with a fish that weighed “just a little bit” less, according to crew member Jack Gardner.<\/p>\n
“I have never caught anything like it,” said the 28-year-old from the village of Paull, near Hull, describing it as the “best feeling ever”.<\/p>\n
Gardner, who has been on board The Dominator since 2018, said the crew had been about 10 miles (16km) from Whitby Harbour on Sunday when they made their first catch.<\/p>\n
“It jumped out of the water, we all just looked at each other in awe,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We couldn’t believe that we had actually hooked into one.”<\/p>\n
The crew had travelled to an area where they had heard the migratory species had been.<\/p>\n
“Just as we were heading home we spotted a group of birds, so we went to try and have a look around there and that’s when we hooked into one,” said Gardner.<\/p>\n
“We knew they were in the waters, it was just whether we could catch them or not because they are fast fish.”<\/p>\n
The crew dragged the fish for about five miles (8km) before they were able to get it aboard.<\/p>\n
“The fight was a lot harder than I thought, the power of it,” said Gardner.<\/p>\n