By: Tiffany Han

On June 21, in North Carolina, the ship Sensation’s catch of a blue marlin was disqualified due to being mutilated by a shark, destroying the crew’s chance of winning some pie money.

Out of 271 boats in the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament, the Sensation brought in the biggest fish, and the only one that weighed more than 600 pounds. But it was disqualified, so it did not receive $3.5 million on the North Carolina coast.

When the marlin first arrived, people thought it would be the winning catch for sure. But on closer inspection, it was bitten, so by the rules Sensation was disqualified. It stated that they don’t accept mutilated fish, since according to the IGFA’s Jack Vitek, “If a fish has a chunk taken out of it, whether it be by a boat or another fish or shark or whatever, it’s not going to be fighting to its full potential. So that’s the rationale behind it.”

So in the end, the first place went to the Sushi, a boat that brought in a blue marlin weighing 484.5 pounds. It won more than $2.7 million, falling short of the $739,500 bonus for the first boat to catch a marlin over 500 pounds.