By: Angela Chen

The North Carolina fishing tournament had 271 boats compete in the tournament, but only one of the boats brought in a blue marlin weighing over 500 pounds (about 227 kilograms).

Cheers came from Morehead city on Saturday for the fish that would most likely be the winning catch for the tournament. The blue Marlin weighed 619.4 pounds (about 281 kilograms).

The “winning” team positioned their boat back to the dock, thinking they surely won, until the administrator broke it to them that the judges had found a bite mark near the Blue Marlins tail. Officials said that the bite could have been from a shark or another animal.

It wasn’t until Sunday, June, 18, 2023 that the Big Rock officials said that the Blue marlin fish was disqualified. The first-place winner went to the Sushi, which caught a Blue Marlin fish that weighed 484.5 pounds (about 220 kilograms), which fell short of the $739,500 bonus for bringing in a fish over 500 lbs. The Sushi team only won 2.7 million dollars.