Largest tuna ever caught was 107st beast bigger than a man | Other | Sport

Most of us probably picture tuna as a fish that’s small enough to squeeze into those tins we see lined up on supermarket shelves. However, they can actually be absolutely enormous.

The tuna we consume in the UK typically originates from one of five species of fish; albacore, bigeye, bluefin, skipjack and yellowfin. The most readily-available, skipjack, represents the smallest variety of tuna, seldom weighing more than 10kg.

Yet their bigger relatives, the western Atlantic bluefin tuna, are genuine oceanic behemoths. A photograph of the largest specimen ever landed has re-emerged on social media and the enormous creature makes the fisherman who caught it appear tiny.

Ken Fraser landed a mammoth Atlantic bluefin off Aulds Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada, in October 1979. This colossal fish weighed an astounding 1,496 pounds (approximately 679 kilograms) and his record-breaking catch remains unbeaten today.

Ken was angling with Capt. Eric Samson aboard Lady and Misty out of Port Hood, Nova Scotia. Bringing in the massive fish required a 45-minute struggle, before Ken succeeded in gaffing the record-holder after it devoured a trolled mackerel.

“We had hired a young fellow, Kyte Gillis, to fight the fish because thats hard work,” Ken wrote in his book Possessed.

“We had hooked a fish early in the morning and we had the fish on for an hour or so and then we lost it. They baited the lines again and hooked up another fish.

“Kyte Gillis was tired,” Ken recalled. “So I jumped in the chair and an hour later we had a world record: a 1,496-pound fish.”

He added: “It’s just ironic; its just the way it happened. I wasn’t supposed to be in the chair, I was supposed to be helping get (the tuna) but I wasn’t supposed to be in the chair.”

The 12ft tuna was only weighed after drying out on the boat for around 10 hours, meaning that its live weight would have been considerably greater.

Ken’s record has stood firm for over 45 years and we may never witness it being surpassed.

One of the largest-ever specimens of an Atlantic bluefin was landed in British waters just last month.

Devon fish wholesaler Ian Perkes purchased the 210kg (463lb) bluefin tuna for more than £2,000 at Brixham fish market on October 10.

He revealed that bluefins were a “relatively new” sight in British waters, but there had been a substantial group spotted recently: “We know they’re here,” he told the BBC.

“We have footage of them on a feeding frenzy so we know that there’s masses of them here but it’s certainly the biggest one that’s been landed on Brixham Market so far.”

He revealed that due to the enormous size of the fish they create “commotions in the sea which you can spot by the water frothing up”.

The tuna we observe in UK and Irish waters tend to be the eastern Atlantic stock.

These spawn in and around the Mediterranean Sea before travelling north, as far as Norway and Shetland.

This stock of fish has reportedly increased by over 20% in the past four decades. But the last time a group of this size had been spotted off the Devon coast was back in the early 1950s, he said: “Apparently it happened here in 1952, was the last and now we’re seeing these fish here over the last two or three years.”

Ian didn’t disclose the name of the angler who had actually landed the enormous fish, but revealed it had been caught using rod and line from a relatively small vessel: “There’s a bunch of quite good fishermen that we have in our area now,” he said.