MASSIVE 1,260-POUND MARLIN MISTAKEN FOR A SHARK AFTER THREE-HOUR BATTLE

🎣 CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS — What began as a fishing trip turned into an extraordinary battle when a fisherman hooked a 1,260-pound Atlantic blue marlin nearly 100 miles off Cape Cod.

Walter Chapman and charter captain Damon Sacco were fishing in the Atlantis Canyon on Aug. 19 when Sacco spotted an enormous fin breaking the surface. At first, he thought they had encountered a giant shark.

Then they got a closer look.

The creature was actually an enormous Atlantic blue marlin measuring more than 11 feet long.

THREE HOURS TO BRING IT IN

Chapman spent roughly three hours fighting the fish before finally bringing it alongside the boat.

The marlin was so powerful that its bill reportedly left holes — what Sacco jokingly called “war marks” — in the transom of the charter boat.

For Chapman, a longtime fisherman from Plymouth, Maine, it was the largest fish he had ever fought on a line.

JUST 142 POUNDS FROM THE WORLD RECORD

Once the enormous marlin was brought back to Falmouth, Massachusetts, it weighed in at approximately 1,260 pounds.

That puts the catch just 142 pounds short of the Atlantic blue marlin world record, a 1,402-pound, 2-ounce fish caught in Brazil in 1992.

Chapman and Sacco believe their catch could be the largest blue marlin ever recorded off the U.S. East Coast.

The arrival created a spectacle at the docks, with crowds gathering to see the extraordinary fish.

SCIENTISTS WANT TO KNOW HOW OLD IT WAS

The marlin’s head was sent to the University of Maine for scientific examination.

Researchers estimate the fish could have been approximately 25 to 30 years old.

That makes the catch even more remarkable. Blue marlin are migratory and only spend a limited period in New England waters because the region is generally too cold for them.

A marine-science professor told the Associated Press that he does not expect many blue marlin exceeding 1,200 pounds to be caught in the Atlantic in the coming years.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FISH?

The meat was divided among roughly a dozen people.

Chapman said he planned to use some of it to make chowder, joking that he certainly wasn’t going to eat a 1,200-pound fish by himself.

For the fishermen, however, the biggest prize may simply be the memory.

A fish initially mistaken for a shark turned into a three-hour battle with one of the largest Atlantic blue marlin ever recorded in U.S. waters.

🎣 A 1,260-POUND GIANT. THREE HOURS ON THE LINE. JUST 142 POUNDS SHORT OF THE WORLD RECORD.

This wasn’t just a fishing trip — it was the catch of a lifetime