Hooked marlin sinks boat

[Gerarddm]

Wednesday, January 30, 2013 11:41am PST

A hooked marlin sinks a fishing boat? Well, something like that

By: David Strege



A fisherman off Panama was battling a huge black marlin when the battle took a turn for the worse. The fish sank the boat.

Or as Marlin Magazine put it on its Facebook post, "Marlin Wins!"

Not all the details are in, but apparently the captain began backing down on the huge fish, a common practice in big-game fishing when a fish is taking line. He puts the boat in reverse to chase the fish.

One commenter on Marlin Magazine's Facebook post who apparently had some knowledge of the incident said that the captain fell as he was backing down on the fish at full throttle. The boat took on too much water and, finally, there was no correcting the situation.

Marlin Magazine reported that the boat went to the bottom of the sea and everybody on board was rescued by the photo boat. And, of course, the fish got away.

More photos as the boat sinks and the fish continues to jump:

[davebrown]

Marlin: 1

Humans: 4,650,997,847,692,983,740.

[Breakaway]

He must have been holding the throttle lever as he fell. No experienced fishing skipper backs down on a fish at full throttle on purpose. Yes its unsafe, but beyond that, nobody can reel that fast so you end up running over the line and cutting it with the props.

Too bad.

Kevin

[johnw]

I'm guessing the rudder went over as well, and the boat heeled far enough to the outside of the turn to put the corner of the cockpit under.

[John B]

Its a bit simple of them to state the marlin got away. Not with 1ooo m of line ,a rod and great big penn or similar attached it didn't.

[Bernadette]

gamefishing:its another cruelty to animals type activity disguised in the name of 'sport' that should be stopped. i hope his boat sank to the bottom and cannot be recovered.

[snow(Alan H)]

gamefishing:its another cruelty to animals type activity disguised in the name of 'sport' that should be stopped. i hope his boat sank to the bottom and cannot be recovered.

I agree

[Ian McColgin]

It's a stand-up flyer, so the skipper was likely standing with his butt against the dash, helm neutral, keeping the stern to the fish with the throttles. As he slipped you can see from the pix how he'd easily catch something - shirt tail, elbow, whatever - enough to gun the engines. To throttle back he'd have to get turned around, something that's just not on.

Sport fishing today has quite a few ethical strikes against it besides animal cruelty. Think of the astounding waste of fossile fuels and the attendent 'carbon footprint'. In the summer of '66 I was a mate on a charter boat at Montauk and was frequently lent out by my captain to Frank Mundis - legendary shark killer, real inventer of post-war charter industry, and Benchly's model for Quint in "Jaws". In his sunset years, Frank became an ardent conservationist who figured that he and the rest of humanity had done more than enough harm to Mother Ocean in the name of manly sport.

[Reynard38]

gamefishing:its another cruelty to animals type activity disguised in the name of 'sport' that should be stopped. i hope his boat sank to the bottom and cannot be recovered.

Ok, but now can someone here please describe "ethical" fishing.

[Rob Hazard]

So the green and white blob tumbling off the flying bridge is the skipper going head over heels?

[Ian McColgin]

Firstly, it's for food.

Our human understanding of ethical killing rests mainly on the victem's ability to make us aware of its pain in death. Plants, for example, do not gain any human sympathy as we dig potatoes or harvest wheat with no thought of the pain a living organism might feel. Even when we move to killing animals, those that are cold blooded and mute - fish, reptiles, amphibians (frogs' legs anyone?) - just don't readily gather human sympathy.

We don't really know if death by being hauled up in a net and dropped live on ice is somehow preferable to a fight with a hook in the jaw that ends being clubbed on the head, maybe.

In the spirit of non-vegan non-judgement we might take it that any catch and kill method that's not about sadistic and thus knowing infliction of pain where the prey ends up being consumed is an ethical part of the chain of life and of our human role as one of the top predators.

In that context, it's natural and human to take pleasure at doing the job well. The additional human pleasures of surmounting a challenge, danger even, and at some level of life or death conflict should be present as part of the total process. It's only a perversion if one of the ancillary pleasures utterly displaces the final goal of human survival.

(This ethical sketch comes surprisingly close to the Roman Catholic Church's teachings on sex. Hmmmmmm. At least with sex if we do it for the ancillary pleasures and not for procreation we're not killing something in the same way hunting or fishing for a trophy does. Just goes to show that developing a systematic ethic takes some work.)

[Figment]

He must have been holding the throttle lever as he fell. No experienced fishing skipper backs down on a fish at full throttle on purpose. Yes its unsafe, but beyond that, nobody can reel that fast so you end up running over the line and cutting it with the props.

Too bad.

Kevin

This.
The lens may be doing some foreshortening as well, but the fish wasn't that far from the boat that an aggressive chase to recover line would even be warranted.

Boathandling error, plain and simple.
Thankfully, calm weather and all hands recovered.

Boat sinks, with hooked marlin attached.

[Paul Pless]

how'd you like to have a boat sink from under you, while you were attached via harness to a very pissed off 500 pound fish???

[Bernadette]

paul, how do you know the fish is angry?
that would imply that the fish is a sentinent being? (and the fisherman is aware that he is causing the marlin distress and physical harm)?

to be fair, i reckon, the fisherman would be deadly worried. no doubt about that. and yes, given the circumstances, frightful of losing his life...................

...................does anyone know how what happened to the marlin? did it live? or does that not matter in this situation?

[Crazer]

Marlin: 1

Humans: 4,650,997,847,692,983,740.

My thoughts exactly.

[johnw]

Ok, but now can someone here please describe "ethical" fishing.

Sure.

[skuthorp]

And people get upset when a passing shark or croc reminds them that they're still part of the food chain.

[johnw]

And people get upset when a passing shark or croc reminds them that they're still part of the food chain.

They get much more upset when they remind us that we're part of the food chain.

[Reynard38]

It's been a long time since I have done any fishing. When I was a kid we caught blues, stripers and flounder mostly. Always ate what we caught.
Went fishing in Costa Rica. 1/2 day close to shore. Reds mostly. Kept a few for the woman whose owned the beach house we rented, released everything else.
Never could see the sense in burning up 500 gallons of diesel to catch and release a trophy fish.
I don't hunt either, but I won't pass judgement on those that do.

[ccmanuals]

I wanted to assist in clearing up the mystery of the Black Marlin and the 37 Strike.
As you have read there are many posts and sites that contain justified and unjustified statements. Please know that this is one of those freak accidents and accidents happen anywhere at any time. We are thankful that there were fellow fisherman there and no one was hurt.

However as the boats manufacture I feel compelled to address some posts. As some think the Marlin did not take down the boat. The transom is 3 feet high from the waterline with a 13 ft. beam and a stepped hull does not play into what happened. The engine room was not filled with water considering the engines were still running. There was not a cracked exhaust, loose hose, the boat is equipped with bilge pumps, alarms and a lower helm station. This boat has been chartering in these same waters and conditions for over two years and has backed down on hundreds of Marlin without issue or concern.
Direct from Panama I was told that the sea conditions were not as calm as they seem to be in the pictures and the Captain was an experienced Captain. The seas were full of big swells and large waves. A large wave came over the transom and with the anglers all being in the starboard corner the boat leaned and the Captain in the tower lost his footing while the boat was still in reverse another wave came over the transom. At this time the captain slipped and believed to still have his hand on the throttle putting the boat in full reverse burying the transom into the next waves and swells. You can see how this might happen as you know when fighting a fish the Captain is facing aft with his hand on the throttles and when slipped the last thing your hand is holding onto is the throttle controls.

As mentioned this is freak accident where no one is to blame (not even the Marlin) Guys be careful out there anything can happen…Good Fishing……

From the boat manufactorer.

[Bernadette]

stability issue it is then?

[Ian McColgin]

No, I don't see it as stability. The manufacturor's remarks seem likely.

[Bernadette]

i beg to differ ian.
with all the anglers on one side of the vessel, in moderate seas, either the vessel has inherant stability issues and should not have been operating in the local conditions or, the master of the vessel should have been aware of the riding characteristics of his vessel and insisted on not allowing all the anglers to be on one side of the vessel all at the same time.
this is what started the sequence of events which lead to the sinking. a stability issue.

[Breakaway]

Bernadette

Try this: It became a stability issue once the cockpit flooded.

Kevin

[Capt. Joe]

Agree Bernadette! Especially when EVERYTHING goes into the chum grinder, as it usually is!
Maybe now we can consider fishing as yet one more risk factor for underwriters and add a few hundred bucks to the policy premiums....

[petermirow]

I'm glad the marlin got the better deal this time.glad the boat sank.
And I'm glad the powerboatboat sank.
They should all sink to the bottom - in my opinion.

However, the picture looks strange, since there seems to be a stretched line pulling the boat under, while the marlin jumps in a totally different direction and angle to the line.
Any comments?

Cheers to the marlin,
Peter

[Paul Pless]

However, the picture looks strange, since there seems to be a stretched line pulling the boat under, while the marlin jumps in a totally different direction and angle to the line.
Any comments?

you're not seeing a line from the boat to the marlin, that's the outrigger. . .

[gnack]

> I'm glad the marlin got the better deal this time.glad the boat sank.

Remember, as John B said in post #5, the marlin doesn't appear to "get the better deal" and was most likely dragged down with the boat (or swam away trailing heavy line, rod, etc.).

[Capt. Joe]

Well, I have been wondering about the legitimacy of the image too! Could be a hoax, so easy to make now day....

[Bernadette]

kevin
its still a stability issue as to why the "cockpit" flooded.

one has to ask: in moderate seas, with all anglers off to one side, a wave poops the stern. this destabilisers the vessel which disrupts the skippers footing which in turn causes him to fall whilst hanging onto the engine controls....and so on.

its still a stability issue.

the photograph shows very mild conditions. the manufacturer states the sea state was not as calm as it looks (which is often the case in photographs). so lets say they were experiencing moderate conditions as ive said before. given that the vessel has a long history of operating in the area, have they experienced near misses in the past? this is not stated. has the vessel been difficult to handle in certain and similar circumstances? none of these points are raised.

of course the manufacturer will want to shed a good light on his product.

with all the anglers on one side: this still remains a stability issue. so the next question i would ask, is whether or not this vessel is suited to the role of gamefishing?

if there had been loss of life, questions of stability and the vessel's ability to carry out her intended role would be at the top of the list.

you just cant ingnore the sinking as a matter of happenstance (?spelling).

[Capt. Joe]

You eat or otherwise use it for a good purpose, that is cool. I think most people who hate hunters and sport fisherman are OK with that - my wife is, and we both have hunted and fished for food, pretty much lived off the ocean in the Caribbean during the late eighties and the nineties......
However, I am very sick already of this site not allowing me to post any pics, even if I reduce them in size....

[Bernadette]

capt joe
i never even thought along those lines! yep! it could be a hoax.
that would explain away a lot of the doubts....but....
more's the pity to the individuals who have nothing better to do with their time than to concoct an elaborate series of photos....
maybe they are animal liberationists!!!?

[Capt. Joe]

I don't know and can't say 'cause I, nor any of us, was actually NOT there Bernadette, but I ran a few fishin missions for marlin and the likes on clients' boats and you know, we always have sharp knives on hand, so, why did the line dragging the boat down, NOT GET CUT.
Cut the line. Simple as that...... I would chew the fuxkin line with my teeth before I let a fish deep six me!
Did you see the hoax footage of the eagle snatching the baby??? LOL.......
If this fishstory is real, the POBs involved should be extremely ashamed of themselves.....

[Breakaway]

kevin
its still a stability issue as to why the "cockpit" flooded.

Allright, lets establish some sport fishing general procedure. When you hook a large fish, its typical to back down on it, to prevent the reel from being stripped of line, and to make the fight shorter. Backing down means popping the engine in and out of reverse gear to establish modest sternway. (Unlike in the movies and in legend, where backing down on a fish is porytrayed as some kind of full throttle backwards race). If possible, you try to get upsea of the fish, even going in forward if needed, so you can back down downsea. Once in a while, the timing of a wave hits the transom so that some splash comes aboard.

What I suspect happened here, is the skipper was backing down and fell. As he fell, his hand was on the controls ( often single-lever aboard a sportfish). At that point the boat is now going full throttle in reverse. As you do so, a wave piles up against the flat transom. In short order this wave comes aboard, filling the boat with green water.

That the crew was all one side would contribute.

If the rudders were cocked in a turn it would contribute.

We dont know any of these things. We weren't there.

But that's what I think happened and why.

Kevin

[Breakaway]

i would ask, is whether or not this vessel is suited to the role of gamefishing?

I'm really not trying to pick a fight..

The boat is a Gamefisherman 40. Cold-molded epoxy ply. Built in Stuart Florida since the 1980's. The builder's resume includes work at both Bertram and Rybovich.

These boats are proven.

Kevin

[Bernadette]

kevin
with all due respect, i know how gamefishing boats operate and perform at sea.
my home town was and still is to a large extent, one of the premier locations for gamefishing in australia.
weve had very big (record breakers) fish hauled up lifeless on the wharves only to be weighed, photographed and dumped.
weve had big name movie stars (americans) come and fish our offshore waters.
many gamefishing boats have been built and repaired here.
and weve had scores of boats form flotillas of about 10 to 20 boats in some years.
im not questioning the builders professional integrity.but then of course, there are builders and there are people who have worked on the shop floor in the manufacturing plants of big name boat production outfits.
stability is more a feature of a vessels design parameters. not so much of an issue about how or where a boat has been built.

what i am questioning is the stability of this vessel given the circumstances.

if as you say, you wernt there: you cannot assume anything more than what is written in the statement by the manufacturer?

[Capt. Joe]

Bernadette, stability has nothing to do with this. (I am a marine surveyor and I do stability books for CG inspected passenger and other commercial vessels - www.marinesupportonline.com ).
Nobody calculates for backing down on fish. It is done with care and caution and there is no peril unless stupidity, mechanical malfunction or structural vessel failure occurs.
What bothers me is the caption "Hooked marlin sinks boat" - the marlin did not sink the boat, the moron did!
I can see a dragger employing steel cable getting into trouble, happens more with tows of course, but nobody makes a fishing line nor a fishing pole that could possibly do that.
Then, there is the question of how real the whole thing is; who was there to take the pictures so conveniently? :>)

[Breakaway]

what i am questioning is the stability of this vessel given the circumstances.

Well this is what I was trying to answer by giving a thumbnail sketch of the builder. With boats in this service for over 30 years, the design is well proven for offshore duty pursuing gamefish.

FWIW--most billfish are released in the US and Caribbean. Most.

Best

Kevin

Kevin

[Bernadette]

hey joe, i like your dog! he's a handsome brute! do you take him on many jobs?
thanks for the link to your page/s.
what im getting at is that if a load shifts or weight is moved (in this case with "all the anglers off to one side" so as to start a chain reaction) then surely that is a stability issue?
is this boat so darn tender that with the movement of so few people enough to cause the start of problems in moderate seas (although it looks like its pretty calm in the photos).
still, as you say, it may very well be a hoax. and im inclined to have doubts myself on this matter.

i would also suggest that despite the number of boats afloat of any one type, does not necessarily mean they are well suited to the purpose for which they are used: here, many people own 'tinnies' and similar small types of 'runabouts'. i often wonder why these boats are so popular despite their inability to handle small rough seas. at fast speeds these short (LOA), fat and flat bottomed boats which are incidentally often high sided, slam and punch by sheer force, into swells and sloppy seas. in my opinion, the punchy jerky ride could cause spinal fatigue over time! but the design is not questioned. people want a cheap fast boat to get them out to the reef (for example) in as short time as possible. if i were to build a 20' half cabin fishing type boat with a nice rounded bottom and full stern with a small keg for stability/steerage and fit a wholesome 25hp diesel inboard, im not sure i would get many customers.
there are many more examples of popularist demand driving the design of boats: think racing yachts etc.

[Capt. Joe]

Hi Bernadette

A lot of very tender boats are built these days - people that want the boat you describe "a nice rounded bottom and full stern with a small keg for stability/steerage" are a dying breed. Wendy and I have been living on a Wittholz designed displacement trawler for more than 30 years. If you have Beebe's book Voyaging Under Power (out of print but available revised by Jim Leishman) you'll find Charles Wittholz and our boat plans in it.
I confess though; we are corten steel, not wood. I joined the WB Forum to try to find Kitlani / see my post "Where is Kitlani".

Are you in Sydney? I see you on Telstra ISP in Sydney but my system could have the IP messed up....
Did you see on my blog the family I recently found in your country? My sister is in Linton, outside of Ballarat...... gettin to be a very small world out there!

Nice to see a girl talking boat tech stuff, need more of you in our world! Most of my gender do not see the cruelty we build into our "sporting" pleasures.... :>)

Best,
Joe

[Capt. Joe]

Firstly, it's for food.

Our human understanding of ethical killing rests mainly on the victem's ability to make us aware of its pain in death. Plants, for example, do not gain any human sympathy as we dig potatoes or harvest wheat with no thought of the pain a living organism might feel. Even when we move to killing animals, those that are cold blooded and mute - fish, reptiles, amphibians (frogs' legs anyone?) - just don't readily gather human sympathy.

We don't really know if death by being hauled up in a net and dropped live on ice is somehow preferable to a fight with a hook in the jaw that ends being clubbed on the head, maybe.

In the spirit of non-vegan non-judgement we might take it that any catch and kill method that's not about sadistic and thus knowing infliction of pain where the prey ends up being consumed is an ethical part of the chain of life and of our human role as one of the top predators.

In that context, it's natural and human to take pleasure at doing the job well. The additional human pleasures of surmounting a challenge, danger even, and at some level of life or death conflict should be present as part of the total process. It's only a perversion if one of the ancillary pleasures utterly displaces the final goal of human survival.

(This ethical sketch comes surprisingly close to the Roman Catholic Church's teachings on sex. Hmmmmmm. At least with sex if we do it for the ancillary pleasures and not for procreation we're not killing something in the same way hunting or fishing for a trophy does. Just goes to show that developing a systematic ethic takes some work.)

Very well said Sir!

[Capt. Joe]

a wave piles up against the flat transom. In short order this wave comes aboard, filling the boat with green water. Kevin

I have been on a couple of them in the Keys in the nineties and if I remember well, they have pretty generous cockpit scuppers and well gasketed deck hatches; you would have to be backing down and allowing greenwater shipping for some time to cause this type of sinking sudden sinking.
I wasn't there, so it's just my two cents worth....

[Bernadette]

yes i did wonder about scuppers etc.

anyhow, joe, im in north queensland in a small town called mourilyan.

i have heard of the book you mentioned, but confess to not ever reading it as ive not been interested in power boats. although, i expect when im much older i might sell my yacht and buy myself a little 25' of the type i described earlier!

boat talk is a favourite with me. as is most things nautical. unfortunately many people are suprised to find a knowledgable woman as such. i do come across sexism in the boating world often enough. and also elsewhere, just the other day...but that is another story!

my nephew lives in ballarat with his american wife who is a vet. she is from the boston area and took up an internship over here. apparently they are pretty difficult to get back in the states. her speciality i believe is large animals but mostly horses. her father is a chip manufacturer. one of the popular brands you buy over there!

[Breakaway]

I have been on a couple of them in the Keys in the nineties and if I remember well, they have pretty generous cockpit scuppers and well gasketed deck hatches; you would have to be backing down and allowing greenwater shipping for some time to cause this type of sinking sudden sinking.

Sure. Boats of that type and size typically have a pair of 6 inch scuppers, 5 or 8 inches above the waterline--at the dock. In a sea, with the boat heaving, the scuppers are alternately above and below, even more so with ( guess how much) water comes aboard. I've been pooped, and if you can throttle up and run forward, the 'pit will drain. But whatever happened here, apparently happened A)In reverse, and B) with a helmsmen who was missing in action for one reason or another.

I'd file this one under guano happens.

As for a hoax? Maybe. But the photo and story was released by the fishing resort that owned the boat. Why would they hoax a catastrophe? Any press is good press?

Kevin

[Ian McColgin]

I see no reason to take it as a hoax or to make the story more complex than it appears to be.

We don't have pix from the start of the incident but we do know about this boat type. Three or even six people on one side won't be capsizing her. As was pointed out, she was not downloading water into the inside of the boat.

The account has the skipper somehow slipping and jamming her full astern. That's the key bit. Full astern. She'll be pulling herself under at that point and everyone's positions from the first pic, which obviously was taken when the incident was well under way, is readily understood as the places folk were falling to. If the throttles had been brought to neutral at any point in the sequence covered by the pix, I'd expect the boat to shake off the water, drain the cockpit, and bobble back to normal. It's the effect of being full astern and having enough wave action that the stern could get started pointing downhill.

[Breakaway]

It's the effect of being full astern and having enough wave action that the stern could get started pointing downhill.

Agree. Plus, an inboard powerboat's drive train is usually installed at about 12- degrees down angle to lift the transom and optimize planing. In reverse, the props actually pull the transom down.

Kevin

[TR]

Full astern creates a tall wave against the deep square transom. This wave, added to the sea state, filled the cockpit faster than the scuppers could empty it. Once the cockpit sole was under water she ran out of stability. Water in the cockpit sank the boat. I'll guess Panama has no stability or drainage standard for small craft....Perhaps owners of this type of boat with large open cockpits should consider adequate (termed "quick" drainage) scuppers.

[Easy]

You people know nothing. I was THERE. This was a benign all-vegan whale-watching cruise, when all of the sudden that marlin ATTACKED out boat out of the blue. I swear, the marlin attacked first, and the ONLY reason we hooked him was SELF-DEFENSE. So take your righteous indignation elsewhere, otay?

[DCBrown]

So,...it seems that it's OK to rip an oyster from it's shell and swallow it live, it's OK to rip a fetus from it's womb and flush it live,....but oh! the poor marlin! ?

[Figment]

So,... it's OK to rip a fetus from it's womb and flush it live,....