Fisherman spends three hours catching massive, valuable tuna - then puts it straight back in the sea
A fisherman toiled for three hours to catch a huge, 300lb tuna - only to put it straight back in the sea after a quick photo op.
Amateur angler Alan Wright caught the giant Atlantic Bluefin - worth thousands on the blackmarket - four miles off the Cornish coast.
But after taking a souvenir photo he returned it to the ocean, despite its illegal value.
This was no solo fishing mission - it took five other men to help Alan haul in the tuna off the coast near Falmouth.
Skipper Dan Gardner, 40, of Mullion, Cornwall, said the fish put up a ‘monumental fight’.
He said: “I couldn’t last five minutes with the fish.
"I have seen them bigger but we have never hooked one that we can definitely say was a tuna.
"It was a monumental fight - it put my back out. It can stay in the water next time.”
Bluefin are one of the largest species of tuna and can live up to 40 years.
The World Wildlife Fund says that if tuna were a car they would be the Ferrari of the ocean because they are sleek, powerful, and made for speed.
There are several species but the Atlantic bluefin can reach 10ft in length and weigh as much as 1,500 lbs, more than a horse, and can swim up to 43 miles per hour across long distances.
One sold for a record £1.09 million at a Tokyo auction in 2013.
Image: SWNS
