Teenager Caught Massive Blue Marlin off Hawaii’s Big Island
A teenager fishing off the coast of Hawaii reeled in a one thousand and fifty eight pound marlin that he said was a personal record, but about three hundred pounds short of a world record.
Kai Rizzuto, 16, of New York, said he was fishing off a charter boat while visiting his grandfather on Hawaii’s Big Island when he hooked the gargantuan fish Wednesday.
“It was jumping straight out of the water, fully breached, shaking its head trying to free itself,” Rizzuto told CNN. “I was really hoping and praying that nothing would happen to this fish and that it wouldn’t break off [the line].”
Rizzuto said he struggled for about 30 minutes with the marlin, which weighed in at 1,058 pounds. He said the largest fish he caught prior to Wednesday was a comparatively petite 55 pounds.
“For my first one to be a grander, it’s just an unreal experience,” Rizzuto told NBC News of the marlin. Jim Rizzuto, the boy’s grandfather, said the fish was dead by the end of the struggle.
“This fish came to the boat dead, upside down on its back, there was no chance of reviving it,” he said. “By and large, we try and release every blue marlin we can as a conservation measure, but sometimes in a hard fight the fish dies and there is nothing you can do.” The grandfather said the marlin will be used to feed “a couple of hundred people.”
“Blue marlin is a high-quality protein. They have been eaten here forever, so when we get a very special fish like this, you turn it over to a fish cutter that makes sure everyone who wants a piece gets a piece,” he said.
The marlin weighed in about 300 pounds shy of the International Game Fish Association’s 1982 world record, which was caught in Kaaiwi Point, about 10 miles from where Kai Rizzuto hooked his marlin.