A fisherman has taken two hours to reel in a large tuna he hooked while hunting for shark off the British coast.
Using a rod he designed himself, Andrew Alsop caught the 225kg (500lb) Atlantic bluefin tuna about 20 miles (32km) off the Welsh coast.
The species is recognised as an endangered fish by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and the British government says they should not be targeted.
Alsop, 48, was fishing in his boat White Water off the south-west coast of Wales, near an area known as the Celtic Deep, when he caught the fish which was at least 2.1m (7ft) long. Fellow fishermen photographed him with the catch before he returned it to the sea.
When it was suspected a large tuna could be on the end of the line, Alsop passed over the controls of the boat to Gavin Davies and took the rod.
“I really didn’t think we had any chance in a million years of holding it,” he said. “At one stage I thought, I can’t do this, the fish was pinwheeling [spinning] and fighting. But I had to land it, or it would just have been another fisherman’s tale.
“I knew it would be big but when it eventually came up it was even more massive than I thought.
“It took six of us to get it on board. We made sure we had plenty of photos then put him back in the water – he was pretty tired but hopefully he would be OK. It was an absolutely mad day, to be honest, and I was aching all over afterwards. I’d gone with the boys for a day out shark fishing but we never expected this. It is the fish of a lifetime.”
Alsop used the same rod to catch a blue shark a few weeks ago.
The government’s Marine Management Organisation said it received reports of bluefin tuna being caught almost every summer off the coast of the UK.
A spokeswoman said: “It should not be targeted and if caught accidentally they must be returned to the sea, alive and unharmed to the greatest extent possible. If this is not possible then the fish may be landed but must not be sold.”
