Possible Record Pacific Bluefin Tuna Caught in New Zealand
OutdoorHub Reporters 09.20.13
A New Zealand fishing crew may have smashed a world record after they landed a behemoth 777-pound bluefin tuna. According to 3 News reporter Juliet Speedy, the fish was reeled in off the coast of Greymouth, on the nation’s South Island, by angler Kevin Baker.
“The next biggest tuna I’ve caught was 33 kilos, so this smashes everything I’ve caught before,” he said.
If confirmed, Baker’s catch could overtake the record for the largest bluefin caught on rod and reel. New Zealand accounted for another record-setting bluefin when Nathan Adams caught a 738-pound beast off the North Island’s coast last year. The nation’s fisheries are touted by many anglers as some of the best tuna fisheries in the world and it is an opinion shared by Captain Lance Goodhew, the skipper of the boat that landed Baker’s fish.
“It’s just an amazing fishery,” Goodhew said. “It’s world-class. It’s equal to the best anywhere in the world, that Kiwis can do a trip out here on their back doorstep and have the potential to catch world-record fish.”
Pacific bluefin tuna are smaller than their Atlantic cousins, which can grow as large as nearly 1,500 pounds. The record for largest Atlantic bluefin tuna caught belongs to angler Ken Fraser, who in 1979 caught a monster 1,496-pound fish off Nova Scotia, Canada.
