An angler from Hawaii reeled in a giant blue marlin off the coast of Kona on Wednesday. It is the 8th largest blue marlin ever caught on record, according to Sports Grid.
The blue marlin was caught by angler Guy Kitakoa. He and daughter Kellie hooked the giant fish at around 1 p.m., and they brought their catch onto their 20-foot boat at around 2:30 p.m., after a long battle with the blue marlin, WBTW News 13 reports.
The 1,368-pound fish is just 8 pounds short of being the biggest blue marlin caught off the coast of Kona since the fish caught in 1992, which weighed 1,372 pounds. Kitakoa's blue marlin was female. Most giant marlins are female because the males rarely grow heavier than 300 pounds, according to the International Game Fish Association.
Katakoa's blue marlin was 12.5 inches long, and its age is estimated to be between 18 to 26 years, which means it is quite old for its species, according to Sports Grid.
Unfortunately, blue marlin falls in the "Vulnerable" category in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the same category as the recently slain Cecil the Lion, as marine conservation organization Blue Planet Society pointed out in a tweet to Sports Grid. The "Vulnerable" category means there is a high risk of the species being endangered in the wild.
.@SportsGrid This blue marlin is the same @IUCNRedList conservation status as #CecilTheLion. #sportfishing #TrophyHunting
— Blue Planet Society (@Seasaver) July 30, 2015
In defense of some comments about the killing of the fish, Waiopai Sport Fishing Charters said on Facebook that catching the blue marlin was not the same as killing Cecil the Lion.
"This was no way at all the same as killing a lion for a trophy, these fish are eaten and if you read the rest of the story, you would have realized the fish came up in pretty bad shape anyways," Waipao Sport Fishing Charters said, adding that even if the fish was tagged, it would not have survived.
"This marlin was not killed for a trophy. The guys who caught it weren't even planning on weighing it, they were just going to take it home and clean it, but they needed the hoist to get it in their truck. So please have all the facts before shedding anymore light on the subject," the fishing charter service said further.
