Photo courtesy: Facebook.comYAHOO.COM - The tuna will not set an all-tackle world record. According to the International Game Fish Assn., Ken Fraser landed a 1,496-pound bluefin off Nova Scotia in 1979.
But the Daily Mail reports that Towers' tuna will yield about 20,000 pieces of sushi and is expected to sell for more than $32,000 to a buyer in Japan.
Neil Cooke, who was with Towers, is quoted as saying: "It took Marc two hours to pull in, and we had started to see the shape of it when the skipper said, 'This could be a big fish.'
"All of a sudden it broke the surface and everyone said, 'It's a monster!' "
A forklift was used to carry the giant fish to the scale.
Not everybody will be a fan of this catch.
Atlantic bluefin tuna are an embattled species--it's listed as endangered on the IUCN red list of threatened species--and the fishery is strictly regulated.
Giants like the one Towers caught are being encountered less frequently these days, which makes his catch all the more impressive, from a pure fishing standpoint.
Said Cooke, when asked to explain how they got the fish to port: "The deckhand made a lasso and tied it around the end of the fish and we dragged it through the water back to the dock."
--Image showing Marc Towers with 1,000-pound bluefin tuna is via the angler's Facebook page
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