When a towering fin broke the surface roughly 100 miles off Cape Cod, charter captain Damon Sacco initially thought his crew had hooked an enormous shark. The pointed bill soon revealed something even more extraordinary: an Atlantic blue marlin weighing 1,260 pounds.
Sacco and his client, retired fisherman Walter Chapman, landed the fish Wednesday, August 19, near Atlantis Canyon. At more than 11 feet long, it is believed to be the largest Atlantic blue marlin ever caught off the U.S. East Coast, according to the Associated Press.
The catch has not been formally described as a new world record. But its verified weight placed it only 142 pounds below the standing all-tackle Atlantic blue marlin record.
A three-hour fight at the edge of the continental shelf
The crew was fishing from Sacco’s charter boat, Castafari, in Atlantis Canyon—an underwater canyon along the continental shelf approximately 100 miles southeast of Cape Cod.
Chapman fought the marlin on rod and reel for about three hours while Sacco maneuvered the boat. The fish’s long bill struck the vessel’s transom and left two holes, damage Sacco later jokingly described as “war marks.”
After returning to Falmouth, Massachusetts, the fish was weighed at 1,260 pounds, or about 571.5 kilograms. Photos supplied to the AP show the huge marlin beside Sacco, Chapman and the crew, providing visual confirmation of its exceptional scale. Contemporary fishing coverage from On The Water also documented the catch and its arrival in Falmouth Harbor.
How close was it to the world record?
The International Game Fish Association lists the all-tackle Atlantic blue marlin world record at 1,402 pounds, 2 ounces. Angler Paulo Amorim caught that fish off Vitória, Brazil, on February 29, 1992.
That means the Massachusetts marlin fell roughly 10% short of the global benchmark—still an extraordinary result for a species more commonly associated with warmer waters.
Walt Golet, director of the University of Maine Pelagic Fisheries Lab and an associate professor of marine sciences, told the AP that northeastern waters are too cold for blue marlin during most of the year. The highly migratory fish visit the region seasonally, creating a narrow opportunity to encounter one of this size.
Researchers may learn how old it was
The fish’s head was being sent to the University of Maine laboratory so researchers could estimate its age. Golet said it might have been between 25 and 30 years old, although that figure remained an initial estimate pending examination.
Determining a large fish’s age can help researchers understand growth, migration and survival patterns. Blue marlin can travel enormous distances, moving through tropical and warmer temperate waters while following prey and favorable ocean conditions.
Golet said catches exceeding 1,200 pounds are so unusual that another Atlantic blue marlin of comparable size may not be landed for years.
What happened after the catch
A crowd gathered when the Castafari returned to Falmouth Harbor. Chapman, a lifelong fisherman from Plymouth, called it unquestionably the largest fish he had ever fought.
The meat was divided among approximately a dozen people rather than discarded. Chapman told the AP that he was researching recipes and expected some of it to be used in fish chowder.
Whether the catch ultimately receives a formal regional record designation remains to be seen. The central facts, however, are remarkable enough: an 11-foot Atlantic predator, 1,260 pounds on the scale and a three-hour battle in waters where a marlin that large is rarely seen.
