Two Massachusetts fishermen have landed a 1,260-pound Atlantic blue marlin, a catch that is believed to be the largest of its kind ever caught off the U.S. East Coast and fell just 142 pounds shy of the world record.
Damon Stacco and client Walter Chapman fought the fish for three hours approximately 100 miles off Cape Cod. Stacco initially mistook the fin for that of a shark before realizing it was a marlin.
"A 'huge dorsal,' he wrote on his Instagram page. 'Am I really seeing this? Four feet high but pointed. A blue hue flashed beneath it. Pecs? Holy s--- it's a marlin! The fin dissappeared [sic] when I screamed. I dropped back the rod beside me and the tip bounced. Line ripped from beneath my fingers.'
The fish was weighed on an IGFA certified scale in Falmouth, Massachusetts, tipping the scales at 1,260 pounds. Stacco described the catch as a "gift from the Gods and new blue marlin Mass. state record and possibly for the Western Atlantic."
The world record for an Atlantic blue marlin is 1,402 pounds, caught off Brazil 34 years ago. This Massachusetts catch was 142 pounds short of that record.
Walt Golet, director of the University of Maine Pelagic Fisheries Lab, noted that catching such a large blue marlin off Massachusetts is remarkable due to the cold water temperatures for much of the year. Golet estimated the marlin to be between 25 and 30 years old and is examining its head for confirmation.
"I don’t 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," Golet said.
Chapman, a lifelong fisherman, plans to divide the meat among about a dozen people. The successful fishing trip also left what Stacco referred to as "war marks" on the boat's transom.