Anisa Khalifa: Blue marlin are sport fish royalty. They can weigh up to a ton and measure over 16 feet. These fish are so big, so strong and elusive that the technology didn't even exist to catch them until the early 1930s. That's when author Ernest Hemingway became a pioneer of the sport. It would later feature heavily in his novel, the Old Man and the Sea, and spark the imaginations of anglers around the world.
John Graves: Marlin fishing is hours and hours and hours of, you know, just looking at lines and then complete insanity for five minutes.
Anisa Khalifa: Today, the. Sport helps fuel an enormous recreational fishing industry. And much of it is situated on the Carolina Coast, which also happens to be the site of one of the most celebrated fishing tournaments in the world.
Unidentified Speaker: It's electric, and every year it just seems to get bigger and bigger. Winning the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament is very prestigious. I think it's the largest blue marlin tournament in the world now.
Anisa Khalifa: I am Anisa Khalifa. This is the Broadside where we tell stories from our home at the crossroads of the South. This week, we follow the drama, the science, and the money behind the hunt for North Carolina's million dollar Fish.
There's nothing quite like a good fishing story, and Ashley Bleau has one of the most incredible ones you'll ever hear.
Ashley Bleau: Once you see that fish crash on that rod, that reel go off, it's a sound you'll never forget. And the adrenaline rush you get of hooking in and fighting a fish for that amount of time, it'll change your life.
Anisa Khalifa: Ashley is the owner of the Sensation, a 52 foot long charter boat based out of Morehead City on the North Carolina coast for a fee. The crew of the sensation will take anglers out onto the Atlantic to catch virtually any sport fish. But we called him up to talk about one fish and one fish only.
Ashley Bleau: I would highly suggest anybody that hasn't try marlin fishing because it's an addiction.
Anisa Khalifa: People travel thousands of miles for a chance to reel in one of these giants, but Ashley doesn't have to go very far because the waters off of his home port are teeming with Marlin. So much so that Morehead City is the site of one of the biggest fishing competitions on the planet, the big rock Blue Marlin tournament.
Unidentified Speaker: There is this giant excitement level for this tournament as we build up to it. I don't know of any captain that Tmore fished this. The Big rock is the greatest blue marlin tournament in the world, period. Welcome to Big Rock Landing on line, you lose 1 million 6 78.
Ashley Bleau: I've grown up watching that tournament grow and being part of it and the excitement is, is overwhelming. It's, it's the Super Bowl of Gil Fish tournaments on the East Coast
Anisa Khalifa: every year in June. Anglers gather in Morehead City for a chance at the ultimate prize back in 2023. The relatively modest sensation competed against 270 other boats.
The full entry fee for the tournament can be as high as $50,000, and that doesn't even include operating costs. So Ashley split the total with two dozen crew members, even he admits it was a long shot bid.
Ashley Bleau: We are out there competing against world's best fishermen and the world's best equipment and we we're kinda like a little charter boat with inexperienced guys and no omni sonars, so we can't really tell where the fish are.
We just we're fishing old school, so we were competing with the Michael Jordans, I mean, really qualified teams that that's all they do day in and day out.
Anisa Khalifa: And I just wanna be clear here, when Ashley says he was competing against the Michael Jordan of Marlin fishing, he literally means Michael Jordan.
Ashley Bleau: I do.
Anisa Khalifa: Jordan owns a $12 million 82 foot long fishing boat and is a regular tournaments.
Unidentified Speaker: Jordan and his crew reeled in that massive 442 pound blue marlin Tuesday in a big fishing tournament off the coast of North Carolina, Jordan's home state. More than 200 votes are competing.
Anisa Khalifa: The odds were stacked against the sensation, but the clock winding down.
They sunk a shot that even Jordan couldn't make.
Ashley Bleau: On the last day, within the last hour before lines were out, we ended up hooking up with a 619.4 pound blue marlin,
Anisa Khalifa: and after wrestling with the fish for six hours, Ashley and his crew mates finally brought it aboard the boat and headed to Morehead City.
Ashley Bleau: Ended up getting in about. 1130 at night to about 13,000 people. Uh, down around Big Rock landing, one of the biggest turnouts the tournament's ever seen.
Anisa Khalifa: The sensations Marlin appeared to be a winner and the massive crowd cheered as they pulled the giant fish onto the scale. But then. A hush fell over the dock
Ashley Bleau: and uh, that's when it was brought to, to light.
Unidentified Speaker: Okay guys, let's talk about, uh, the rules here for a second. Lemme go get 'em. It would appear that this fish has been bitten by a shark.
Anisa Khalifa: So here's the problem. When a blue marlin gets hooked on a line. It becomes an easy target for the ultimate predators of the sea sharks. And at the big rock tournament, if a marlin has been mutilated by a shark during the fight, it doesn't count.
Ashley Bleau: So they were gonna wait till the next day to kind of make a decision on the fish, and the next morning they disqualified it.
Anisa Khalifa: And that decision cost the crew of the sensation, not one, not two, but.
Ashley Bleau: Three and a half million dollars.
Anisa Khalifa: So would it be safe to say that some of these animals are million dollar fish?
Neal Conoley: Yes, that would be very safe to say.
Anisa Khalifa: Neal Connolly is the former head of the North Carolina Aquarium Society. He's also writing a forthcoming history book about the big rock blue marlin tournament. Neal says The amount of money on the line at these competitions means that they take, the rules vary seriously.
Neal Conoley: The uh, tournament, like other tournaments, uses a polygraph.
Anisa Khalifa: Oh really?
Neal Conoley: If a fish is landed, they do an interview and you know the fish's discrepancies, they research that.
Anisa Khalifa: And so they, so they have to take a lie detector test to make sure that they, what they say about how they caught the fish is true.
Neal Conoley: That's correct. And they have to have some video evidence as well.
Anisa Khalifa: That level of meticulous documentation removes any doubt, even the little white lies that have come to make phish stories famous. But Neal says sometimes reality truly is stranger than fiction. One of his favorite stories is about a New Jersey state senator competing in the big rock in the seventies who caught a bail of marijuana,
Neal Conoley: and so they brought it on the boat. Local police came over and. Estimated the value at about $75,000, so they turned it over to the police.
Anisa Khalifa: That's a big catch.
Neal Conoley: Yeah. Big catch for then. Yeah.
Anisa Khalifa: And then there are the record breakers.
Neal Conoley: The largest marlin that's been landed in the big rock tournament to date was a little over 900 pounds. Wow. That fish was so big that he got stuck in the transom door when they were getting him on board. And so they tried two or three different things. They tried putting soap on him and slide tried to slide him in. That didn't work. So they decided,
Anisa Khalifa: sorry, I'm just, I'm just visualizing this image of them soaping up a giant, a 900 pound fish.
Neal Conoley: I know.
Anisa Khalifa: That Marlin caught in 2019 was worth nearly $800,000.
While the prize money might sound mind boggling. Neal is quick to point out that the Big Rock is actually run by nonprofit organizations. Since the first tournament in 1957, they've helped raise money for local charities. And the tournament also gives back to the region. In other ways,
Neal Conoley: the economic impact is significant. Millions of dollars, I mean, every year.
Anisa Khalifa: And that doesn't stop when the tournament is over and the tourists leave town. The marlin economy just keeps on churning.
Neal Conoley: There are a lot of boat builders on the coast of North Carolina.
Anisa Khalifa: Yeah. Tell me about specifically the boats. Like what, how, how does that work?
How does it interact with the shipbuilding industry?
Neal Conoley: Well, North Carolina is a mecca for boat builders. The Carolina Flare style of boat, which is the, the bow of the boat is distinctive. It's known around the world. Ah, people come from all over to have. They're custom boats built in North Carolina.
Anisa Khalifa: Like how much would an average boat that you get built custom,
Neal Conoley: uh, a custom sport fishing boat in the 60 foot range is probably 4 million and up.
Wow. Uh, and they're, you know, I've heard of people that have spent 15 million to have a sport fishing boat built.
Anisa Khalifa: All told the state's salt water sport fishing industry props up a massive local economy that ranks second in the nation behind only Florida. According to a 2022 study from noaa, it supports 12,000 jobs and generates nearly $1.6 billion in annual sales for the coastal communities and the anglers. It's a win-win. But what about the fish? Are there enough marlin in the sea for the fun to last forever?
John Graves: Blue marlin are considered vulnerable, and that's not just in the Atlantic.
Anisa Khalifa: We'll dive into that after a short break.
John Graves: Marlin fishing is hours and hours and hours of, you know, just looking at lines and then complete insanity for five minutes.
Anisa Khalifa: John Graves is a scientist who isn't afraid to get a little soggy
John Graves: for, for really big fish, it can be very hectic, and especially with billfish when, when a billfish gets on. All hell breaks loose on the boat.
Anisa Khalifa: John's a retired marine biologist and professor with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He's also an amateur angler.
John Graves: Yeah. My wife always thought it was criminal that I was getting paid to go fishing. I've been in situations where the fish just go absolutely ballistic while you're clearing the lines and backing down and. The fish just jumped the whole time. It was like it was allergic to water.
Anisa Khalifa: In his career, John's research focused on different types of billfish, like swordfish, sailfish, and of course the blue marlin.
John Graves: Now blue marlin, the anywhere from the ones that we see off North Carolina from a hundred pounds to over a thousand pounds, so they get big.
Anisa Khalifa: These massive fish are a prized catch in a competition like the Big Rock. But environmentally reeling in a winner can come with a cost.
John Graves: If you look at the most recent assessment, the blue marlin are, are overfished, so they're considered vulnerable.
Anisa Khalifa: John says The biggest threat to bill fish by far is commercial phish.
Marlin isn't common cuisine here in the United States, but it is in other countries.
John Graves: The fishing mortality from the commercial fisheries dwarfs the recreation,
Anisa Khalifa: but sport fishing isn't completely off the hook. So is the big rock tournament helping or hurting with conserving the blue marlin?
John Graves: It's a bit of both.
Anisa Khalifa: First, let's talk about the risks. Tournaments like Big Rock, have strict rules on the size and weight. For a catch to qualify, a marlin has to be at least 400 pounds for it to count. But before you can weigh it, first, you gotta reel it in, and that can pose a serious risk for the fish.
John Graves: So a lot of people wanna get that hero shot. You know, you caught the fish and, and, and you bring it out of the water. Turns out that's not very good for the fish.
Anisa Khalifa: John says that billfish are unique because they can only breathe if they're moving forward in the water. So if you're fighting with a marlin, tugging it every which way out of the water, it's not gonna feel great.
John Graves: I liken that to someone chasing me around quarter mile track, and I'm running as fast as I can, and when I'm done. They get there and they put my head in, in a bucket of water. Oh, wow. So I can't breathe. I'm gonna be in, you know, stress right away. And so when you bring the fish outta water, you, you are really reducing its chances of survival.
Anisa Khalifa: But increasingly serious anglers understand these potential harms. And John says, many see the sport not only as a competition, but as an opportunity to learn more about their catch.
John Graves: There is definitely fishing mortality in the tournament, but they're also promoting research and doing a lot of other things that, that are helping to conserve.
Anisa Khalifa: John has been at the forefront of that conservation effort, working closely with anglers and tournaments to promote sustainable fishing. That includes the use of certain hooks that limit injuries to the fish, an encouraging catch and release, meaning if a catch isn't the right size and weight. You toss it back in the water and he says those efforts have paid off.
John Graves: I think anglers realized that, you know, they didn't need to take all the fish if they wanted to catch the fish. And in the recreational community, you had this rapid adoption of catch and release fishing if someone was bringing in a fish. That they just caught and, and it wasn't in a tournament. They were kind of poo-pooed.
Anisa Khalifa: Surprisingly. John says A lot of the big fish caught in competitions are now donated for research.
John Graves: Those fish that are brought in, they're gonna have their stomach contents analyze, they're gonna be sex, they're gonna get measurements on them. So a lot of information from each fish, and it's a two-way street.
It, it's great.
Anisa Khalifa: And that's where anglers like Aaron Barr come back into the picture.
Aaron Barr: Anytime I can get on the water is a good time. You know, hey, sometimes it works out for you, sometimes it doesn't. But the, the thing that brings us back is the chance that it will.
Anisa Khalifa: Aaron is the first mate on the Never enough a charter boat based out of Morehead City.
Aaron Barr: So I am responsible, uh, for everything where, where the magic happens, rigging, baits, setting lines, helping anglers reel in fish, and you know, all that stuff
Anisa Khalifa: right now. Aaron and his crew mates are gearing up to compete in the Big Rock tournament, which is expecting a record turnout this year.
Aaron Barr: It's electric. I mean, I think last year they broke another record with 300 and some odd boats.
Anisa Khalifa: What are you hoping for in this year's Big Rock tournament.
Aaron Barr: Catch the winning Fish. Catch a 600 pound blue marlin. Yeah, just getting ready for the grind. It's gonna be a long week. And, uh. I'm looking forward to it.
Anisa Khalifa: Yes, Aaron admits coming away with the prize money wouldn't be too bad, but like John Graves, Aaron sees his time out on the water, not as a battle with the ocean, but as an opportunity to learn more about it, admire its beauty, and to ensure that future generations can do the same.
Aaron Barr: I grew up fishing and hunting and, and all that stuff, and it's just something that brings me joy. I grew up doing fresh water and then I was stationed in Hawaii and I fell in love with salt water fishing. Not only fishing, but diving and all that other stuff too. Just being in the water. It's a whole different world. It drowns out everything that's going on around you, and you just focus on what you're seeing.
Anisa Khalifa: So for you, what's the appeal of being an angler? What keeps bringing you back? Every time.
Aaron Barr: It's therapy. It's therapy. Uh, being out on the ocean is calming. I don't sleep good. So being out there, it's peaceful. Um, and, and it's actually not the fish that I catch.
It's sharing my passion with other people, giving them the opportunity to experience what it is. And, and you don't catch fish all the time. You may catch one or two in some days. It's a trip of a lifetime. You, you know, you put a bunch of fish in the box, but it's just sharing that passion with people that are passionate about what you're passionate about.
Anisa Khalifa: Thank you, Aaron. Good luck at the competition.
Aaron Barr: Thank you. Thank you very much guys.
Anisa Khalifa: The 67th annual Big Rock Tournament runs from June 6th to June 15th in Morehead City. In addition to the Never Enough, the field will also include Ashley Blue and the crew of the sensation who are. Still trying to reel in the big prize. This episode was produced by Charlie Shelton Ormond, and our editor Jerad Walker.
Our executive producer is Wilson Sayre. The Broadside is a production of WUNC North Carolina Public Radio and is part of the NPR network. If you have feedback or a story idea, you can email us. At broadside@wunc.org. If you enjoyed the show, leave us a rating, a review, or share it with a friend. I'm Anisa Khalifa. Thanks for listening, y'all. We'll be back next week.