| MadSci Network: Zoology |
The only records available for fish size come from those that have been caught, so below are some of those records. Remember that there may always be even larger ones that have never been caught! The largest officially ratified fish ever caught on a rod was a man-eating great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) weighing 1208 kg/2,664 lb and measuring 5.13 m/16 ft 10 in long, caught on a 58 kg/130 lb test line by Alf Dean at Denial Bay, near Ceduna, South Australia on 21 April 1959. A great white shark weighing 1537 kg/3,388 lb was caught by Clive Green off Albany, Western Australia on 26 April 1976 but will remain unratified as whale meat was used as bait. In June 1978 a great white shark measuring 6.2 m/20 ft 4 in in length and weighing over 2268 kg 5,000 lb was harpooned and landed by fishermen in the harbor of San Miguel, Azores. The largest marine animal killed by hand harpoon was a blue whale 29.56 m/97 ft in length, by Archer Davidson in Twofold Bay, New South Wales, Australia in 1910. Its tail flukes measured 6.09 m 20 ft across and its jaw bone 7.11 m/23 ft 4 in. The largest fish ever taken under water was an 804 lb/364 kg giant black grouper or jewfish by Don Pinder of the Miami Triton Club
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