Two longtime Massachusetts fishermen initially thought they were reeling in a shark, but instead they caught a 1,200-pound marlin, believed to be the biggest of its kind ever hauled in on the East Coast.<\/p>\n
Damon Sacco, a seasoned charter fishing boat captain from the Bay State had been fishing for hours with his client on Wednesday when he caught a glimpse of a giant fin breaking the water\u2019s surface about 100 miles off Cape Cod, MA.<\/p>\n
At first, Sacco thought it was a massive shark but then he \u201cgot a better look at it and thought, dang, that thing\u2019s pointed\u201d and assumed it was \u201ctoo big for a marlin,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
The charter boat captain initially thought it was a shark. AP<\/p>\n
To his surprise, the fisherman had caught a 1,260-pound Atlantic blue marlin that measured in at over 11 feet in length alongside his client, retiree Water Chapman.<\/p>\n
Chapman, a lifelong fisherman from Plymouth, Mass., fought on rod and reel with the marlin for about three hours and said it was unquestionably the biggest fish he\u2019s ever fought on a line before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sacco said his role for most of the stunning adventure was to \u201cdrive the bus around and yell at people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The marlin\u2019s bill left a couple of holes in the charter boat\u2019s transform which Sacco considers \u201cwar marks.\u201d<\/p>\n
After hauling the mammoth billfish back to shore in Falmouth, Mass., where an excited crowd was waiting, the fishermen believe it is the largest Atlantic blue marlin ever caught off the East Coast.<\/p>\n
The Atlantic blue marlin weighed a whopping 1,260 pounds. AP<\/p>\n
The enormous billfish measured in at over 11 feet in length. Katie Curran via AP<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople fish their entire lives and never come close to a catch like this,\u201d Falmouth local Katie Curran said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHats off to Captain Damon Sacco and the crew on the catch of a lifetime,\u201d Curran quipped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Massachusetts marlin weighed just 142 pounds shy of the world record for an Atlantic blue marlin caught in 1992 off the coast of Brazil, according to the International Game Fish Association records.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Walter Chapman and Damon Sacco believe it is the biggest fish to be caught off the East Coast. Jimmy Fee via AP<\/p>\n
More remarkable, however, is reeling in such an enormous catch off New England, according to Walt Golet, director of the University of Maine Pelagic Fisheries Lab.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t suspect there will be a whole lot of blue marlin caught in the Atlantic in general that are going to top 1,200 pounds for the next several years,\u201d Golet said.<\/p>\n
For most of the year, the water in the Northeast is too cold for marlin fish, making the window to catch such a large one extremely narrow, said Golet, who also works as an associate professor at the university\u2019s marine sciences school.<\/p>\n
The blue marlin was caught on Sacco\u2019s charter boat on Wednesday. Jimmy Fee via AP<\/p>\n
The 1,260-pound fish was caught in Atlantis Canyon, an underwater canyon on the edge of the continental shelf about 100 miles\u00a0off Cape Cod.<\/p>\n
Golet said the blue marlin, which are highly migratory fish, are seasonal visitors to the area.<\/p>\n
The fish\u2019s head was transported to the UMaine lab to determine its age but Golet speculated it could be in the range of 25 to 30 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The meat of the over one-thousand-pound fish was divided among about a dozen people, according to Chapman, who is currently looking up recipes to put the meat to good use.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to eat a 1,200-pound fish all by myself,\u201d Chapman joked and said some of the meat is probably destined for clam chowder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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