Now here's a fish tale that even Captain Ahab wouldn't believe.
We take you now to Morehead City, NC site of the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.
Since 1957, the tournament, run by a nonprofit charity, has attracted sport fishermen from all over, including Michael Jordan, who competes on his fishing yacht, the Catch 23, according to the New York Times.
Last month, the crew of the Sensation joined 270 other vessels that set out to sea over six days in hopes of winning millions in prize money and having their achievement engraved in the Big Rock fountain at the Morehead City docks.
Millions of dollars were at stake, And when we say "millions," we mean just that--millions.
The first boat to bring in a marlin weighing more than 500 pounds would win the Fabulous Fisherman prize, worth $739,500. The prize for catching the biggest marlin overall was $2,769,400.
Do the math and you’ll see that the potential haul for both prizes comes to a whopping $3.5 million.
Problem With the Catch
Naturally, the tournament rules are quite stringent.
Boats are required to radio in when they have a fish on the line, provide video of their battles with fish later to confirm the catch was legitimate and there was no cheating. And winners must take polygraph tests.
Now things were looking bad for the crew of the Sensation as the days went by but the fish were scarce.
And then on the sixth day, the Sensation got "a hit like you wouldn’t believe," according to Greg McCoy, the ship's captain.
A titanic struggle ensued and the massive marlin finally gave up the ghost, the crew was tasked with hauling the 619.4-pound blue marlin on the boat.
This translated to hours of winching and once the denizen of the deep was boated, the crew headed triumphantly back home.
Yeah, except there was a problem.
The marlin had a bite on its tail, apparently from a shark, and was missing a chunk of flesh on its anal fin.
Tournament officials reviewed the fish at the weigh station and, after a further review that evening, determined the bites had come before the fish hauled on board.
Under the rules, any fish that was mutilated during the battle would be disqualified. When a fish is hurt, the angler has an unfair advantage.
'Part of the Sport'
Big Rock president Emery Ivey said in a Facebook video that ideally, “when you fight and land this fish, you have fought 100% of the fish,”
"It's never fun," he said, "but it's just part of the sport. It's no different than if you're playing golf and hit you hit it out of bounds. You can't just go pick the ball up and go put it in bounds and continue to play."
"That’s f@cking brutal man," one person tweeted about the ruling.
"Makes me sick but rules are rules and you know that going into tournament," another comment read. "Nothing they can do about it."
Boat owner Ashley Bleau had filed the official protest of the decision by the tournament, but it was later withdrawn.
"After reviewing the Tournament Rules, the applicable laws and further examination of the blue marlin, we concluded that the Tournament properly applied the Tournament Rules and made the correct decision in disqualifying our 2023 Tournament catch," the Sensation's owners said in a statement.
"We would like to congratulate the fishing vessel Sushi on winning the Tournament with its 484.5-pound blue marlin," the statement read.
Sushi will win $2.77 million of the tournament’s $5.85 million purse with its victory now official.
And the crew of the Sensation? Well, they've got quite a story to tell.
