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Moby Dick 2.0: Black marlin sinks fishing boat off the coast of Panama

A scrappy marlin capsizes a boat off the coast of Panama.

Fisherpeople: when you’re trawling for big scaly creatures that live in the ocean, make sure they haven’t been hitting the fish equivalent of P90X.

Yes, this may be difficult because how are you supposed to know which enormous black marlins have been working those muscles so hard they can single-handedly sink your entire charter boat off the coast of Panama and which have totally been slacking?

You can’t. Because this actually just happened to an unlucky captain who, according to Marlin Magazine, unwittingly picked the wrong craniate to rumble with during a fishing expedition last week.

Though few details are available, it’s believed by people who actually know the first thing about fishing that the captain began backing down on the fish when the marlin started taking line. He then threw the boat into reverse and in order to chase his big game.

Someone on the magazine’s Facebook page suggested the captain fell down as he was “backing down on the fish at full throttle” lost control of the boat and caused it to fill up with too much water. The marlin got away.

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Thankfully, the entire crew was reported to be safe. The boat, on the other hand, is now sleeping with the fishes. And the Miami Marlins wish they had this much game.

On a more serious note, the humans in the story are very lucky to be alive. And though the marlin escaped, it’s likely that it may succumb to its injuries after its violent tussle with a fishing hook. It’s also possibly still tethered to the boat’s net. Both potential fates are horrible and sad and call for more responsible big-game fishing practices.

Or this entire photo set could be Photoshopped, as a number of readers believe, and we’ve all been taken for a whale of a ride.

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