What a day on Kauai waters! A day that one Goodfellow Bros. Inc. crew will never forget.
The Kauai region crew set sail to do a little team-building and celebrate all the work accomplished to-date this busy season. They didn’t anticipate their biggest team challenge, reeling in a mammoth marlin, would be right around the corner.
The Taipan V, a 50-foot Hatteras, skippered by 33-year veteran Capt. Steven Yamasaki and crewed by Dennis Silva and Larry Hutchins, left the Nawiliwili Harbor at 6 a.m. Saturday. The crew consisted of GBI staff and members of the Operators Local 3 and Laborers Local 368, including: Tristan and Jane Gonzales, Peter and Lyndsey Kahale, Micah Higashi, Austin Parinas-Kenney and Siosaia Talakai.
At 2 p.m. outside of Makahuena on the 500 fathoms ledge heading back to Lihue, an absolute monster of a fish hit the center lure and the fight was on.
Tristan Gonzales was first on the Shimano Tiagra 130 reel and could not believe the size of the fish that hit the lure as it went airborne.
“It looked like a sea monster. The biggest darn fish I have ever seen,” Gonzales said. “I was just hoping the hook sank to give us a fighting chance to land this fish.”
From the start, the crew knew it was going to be a team effort to reel it in. Every person on the boat either took a turn on the reel or shouted down from the fly deck words of encouragement.
Peter, Saia, Micah and Austin all gave it their best on the reel, with Dennis and Larry pulling on the line with all they had. Lyndsey and Jane took the amazing photos and video that documented the battle.
The team was able to reel the fish next to the boat five times, but the fish was not giving up so easily. It fought each time and escaped with such incredible speed and power, the crew thought the spool might not even have enough line.
Two different times, in an incredible display of resistance, the fish went airborne shaking its mighty head hoping to lose the hook that was set deep in its mouth. But the hooks stayed true and after an hour-and-a-half the team was able to finally bring the marlin to the boat, gaff her, and bring her on board.
It took all seven men to drag this monster of a fish on to the Taipan’s stern deck while Yamasaki yelled “Heave Ho! Pull you suckers, pull! I want my 1,000-pounder on the boat!”
This blue marlin, now known as the “Yamasaki Grander” (named for boat Capt. Steven Yamasaki) weighed in at 1,073 pounds and ranks as the 65th largest blue marlin ever taken in the state.
Per the Hawaii Fishing News list of Hawaii Granders, it is the second-largest blue marlin ever taken from Kauai waters.
With the oceans being depleted of fish and the overexploitation of the world’s remaining wildlife by humans, this display of human greed and excessive ego is nothing short of tragic. This giant, old fish was of incalculable value to both his species and the ocean ecosystems he was a vital part of. Our species must evolve beyond this gruesome and macabre celebration of a man’s fragility – so fragile he conflates killing a magnificent and irreplaceable wild creature with his own worth. Truly pathetic.
Lost in all this celebrating was the fact that this blue marlin “monster” was a sexually mature female capable of producing several million eggs per mating season. This majestic creature, which already suffers from overfishing by longline, is far more valuable alive than it is dead. Instead of killing the marlin, the crew could have caught the fish, taken photographs, and then released it back into the wild. It didn’t have to be killed. In my mind what the Goodfellow Bros. crew did was akin to a trophy hunter traveling to Africa, and then going out and shooting an elephant or lion in their prime. If we continue to kill earth’s creatures, before long there will be none left. And that will be humanity’s loss.
That’s a hell of a marlin to catch, but better be careful not to eat too much because of the mercury content. However it’s make allot of smoked marlin and steaks. I hope the crew gets to take home some of it as some boaters take the whole fish for themselves?
I used to know of one local Chinese man who was so greedy, he always took the most prized fish to sell and gave us crew members the rubbish ones. Once we got over 300 lbs of Opakapaka, two yellow fin tuna and a couple mahimahi, he took it all to sell and we had to share the smallest Opakapaka.
When he passed away, i didn’t go to his funeral. Still to this day I have no respect for this guy.