FISHERWOMAN CATCHES WORLD RECORD 64 STONE TUNA FISH(WORTH $2.02M OR 3162 TINS)
A fisherwoman got the surprise of her life when she reeled in a record-breaking
tuna - twice the size of a baby elephant.
Donna Pascoe, 56, hooked
the 411.6kg (64 stone) Pacific bluefin tuna using a 60lb line near the Three
Kings Islands off Cape Reinga of New Zealand.
But despite her catch
having an estimated market value of around $2.02 million with enough meat on it
to make 4,116 tuna sandwiches, Donna has decided to stuff it and hang it on her
wall.
The experienced angler first suspected something fishy was going on when her line began to tug.
'The line was peeling
out like it was attached to a freight train,' said Donna, of Auckland, New
Zealand. 'As usual, I was pretty nervous that I might get spooled. Thankfully,
the fish stopped running and I was able to get a bit of line back in.'
Unaware of the scale of her catch, Donna and her four-strong team battled for over four hours to drag the gargantuan 8ft 9' tuna onto her boat.
'It was a very stubborn
fish, but I'm stubborn as well,' said Donna.
'The wind had got up to gusts of 36 knots and I was getting drenched from the waves coming over the back of the boat.
'But I was determined to
win this one. I knew we had to get the tuna on board before a shark came and
bit a chunk out of it.
'We were all speculating what it was. No way did I think it was a tuna.'
After the 4 hour and 11
minute long battle, the fish was lifted on to the boat, with the help of the
anchor winch.
She said: 'Once we got
it on board, everybody's mouth dropped open. It was absolutely amazing.
'I was so excited that
my arms and legs could have fallen off and I wouldn't have noticed. I think
adrenalin is a great thing and it certainly kept me going.'
At 411.6kg, the fish
weighs twice as much as a baby elephant and could fill 3162 cans of tuna.
It blows the current
world record of 335kg out of the water.
Last year, a relatively
measly 222kg bluefin tuna sold for $1.09 million at a Tokyo auction. Kilo for
kilo, that value means Donna's fish could be worth up to $2.02 million.
However, Donna is unable
to sell it, because the fish wasn't caught on a commercial vessel.
Instead, she plans to
have it mounted by a taxidermist at the Houhora Big Game & Sports Fishing
Club in New Zealand.
Donna explained: 'We were originally going to have it smoked and shared around our friends, but then we were talked out of this as it was so monumental.'
Usually a fish is either
stuffed with filler material like firmly packed sawdust or it is stretched over
a mold and shaped into the desired pose. Donna has chosen to make a mold, but
the pose, she says, is yet to be decided.
The enormous catch put
Donna in first place in the tuna section for the New Zealand Sport Fishing
Council Nationals Competition.
She is now awaiting
certification from the International Game Fish Association so she can claim the
world record.
Bluefin are the world's
largest tuna and can live for up to 40 years. Built for speed, they can dive up
to 4,000 feet and have retractable fins so they can seek out schools of
herring, mackerel and eels.
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