Sometimes you don't know what you catch, even after you catch it. Researchers were surprised by what was lurking inside the belly of a giant blue marlin.
It turns out the marlin had eaten a smaller tuna that researchers had previously tagged. The boat Nikki Bella ended up capturing the marlin after fishing off the coast of Venice, Louisiana as part of a fishing classic. They had used a 5-pound blackfin tuna as bait. But it turns out the large fish had a taste for tuna as researchers would soon find out.
"The fish was huge, and I fought it for over two hours," angler and boat owner Marc Padgett tells Outdoor Life. "We got it in about 11 p.m. Then we packed it in ice, roped its mouth shut, and stowed it in an insulated fish bag to preserve its weight."
The team ended up winning second place and $90,000 for the 10-foot fish.
Marlin Eats Another Tagged Fish
"We turned the marlin over to the marina folks, who gave data on the catch to the Billfish Foundation for research," Padgett explained to the outlet. "We never learned about the significance of the marlin until we heard about it this week from the Billfish Foundation."
Fast forward several days, and researchers at the Billfish Foundation discovered a 22-inch yellowfin tuna inside the marlin. The University of the Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory had previously tagged and released the tuna just a month prior.
They wrote on Instagram, "Incredible discovery from the Gulf: a tagged yellowfin tuna, released in May near Venice, LA by the LA?'Tex Tournament, was later found in the stomach of a 595?'lb blue marlin sampled at @cajuncanyons by our friends at @usm_cfrd , marking the one our first-ever recapture of a tagged fish from inside another fish. This moment underscores how every tag tells a story and why your participation matters."
So apparently, the marlin had eaten the tuna, which seems like a first.
"I guess that marlin really loved eating little tuna," said Captain Scooter Porto. "A Billfish Foundation guy told me they've never had a tagged fish returned that had been eaten by another fish - so this is a first, a real once-in-a-lifetime event, they believe."
