A 1,260-pound Atlantic blue marlin caught Wednesday off Massachusetts is believed to be the largest ever landed off the U.S. East Coast, and it came within 142 pounds of the species' all-tackle world record.
Capt. Damon Sacco and angler Walter Chapman were fishing aboard Sacco's Castafari at Atlantis Canyon, about 100 miles off Cape Cod, when the enormous marlin struck. Chapman battled the fish on rod and reel for roughly three hours before the crew brought it alongside the boat. The fish measured more than 11 feet long and was weighed after the boat returned to Falmouth.
The catch shattered the previous Massachusetts state record of 873 pounds and surpassed the previous East Coast mark of 1,228 pounds from North Carolina. The International Game Fish Association's Atlantic blue marlin world record is a 1,402-pound fish caught off Brazil in 1992.
The size of the fish is particularly notable because blue marlin are seasonal visitors to New England, where water temperatures are too cold for them much of the year. Walt Golet, director of the University of Maine Pelagic Fisheries Lab, said the fish could be 25 to 30 years old. Its head has been sent to the laboratory, where researchers will examine it to determine its age.
The fish was caught while trolling over Atlantis Canyon, a deep-water feature along the continental shelf that concentrates offshore pelagic species. Sacco said the marlin's bill punched a couple of holes in the boat's transom during the fight, leaving what he called "war marks."
The marlin was brought back to Falmouth, where a crowd gathered to watch it lifted from the boat and weighed. The meat was subsequently distributed among about a dozen people.
For Northeast anglers, the catch is a remarkable demonstration of just how far north giant Atlantic blue marlin can range during their seasonal migrations—and how extraordinary the fish can be when one of the ocean's largest predators encounters the productive waters of the continental-shelf canyons.