‘Nothing nefarious’ crew that reeled in 600-lb marlin objects to ruling that DQ’d $3.5 million prize
The fishing crew that lost a tournament – and a $3.5 million prize – because the humongous marlin they reeled in was disqualified are protesting the decision, reportedly insisting there was “nothing nefarious” involved in catching the 600-pound whopper.
The crew of the Sensation lodged a formal protest Sunday after officials with the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament ruled the 619.4-pound marlin was disallowed because it appeared to be bitten by sharks.
The monstrous marlin – that took six hours to catch Saturday – would have earned the crew first place in the North Carolina tournament.
“It was deemed that the fish was mutilated before it was landed or boated and therefore it was disqualified,” tourney officials wrote in a statement Sunday, noting it was either bitten by a shark or other marine animal.
But Ashley Bleau, the owner of Sensation, told The Post his crew quickly filed the protest hours after the tournament made its decision, calling the rules cited by officials “arbitrary.”
He believes the mutilation regulations are not applied evenly and are too open to interpretation.
“Sometimes they’ve been disqualified, sometimes they weren’t,” he said of other fish presented at past tournaments. “That’s where my protest is in, in the discrepancy.”
“That fish was not hindered in its ability to fight based off of that bite,” Bleau said.
He said as his crew sailed back into the docks with their huge catch, they “were riding a high of like winning the Stanley Cup” as throngs of onlookers cheered for them.
“To go from that type of high to a dark storm cloud hovering over the whole operation, it was one of the most defeating feelings I ever had,” Bleau said.
The boat’s captain, Greg McCoy insisted to CNN his crew followed every rule.
“We worked hard, we felt like what we did was incredible with this fish, we knew we had won the tournament,” McCoy said.
“I knew that fish was gonna destroy the other fish on the leaderboard weight-wise, and that’s exactly what it did. We followed all the rules. There was nothing nefarious or cheating or anything like that on our part.”
“We feel like it was taken away from us,” he also said.
Tournament rules require the dispute to be mediated and if it’s not revolved then, it would then be submitted to arbitration, per the North Carolina Revised Uniform Arbitration Act, Sensation’s lawyer Stevenson L. Weeks told CNN.
Big Rock tournament officials said Sunday morning the decision came after “careful deliberation and discussions.”
The tournament, in its statement, said the decision to disqualify Sensation’s catch was consistent with past rulings and in line with the International Game Fish Association rulebook.
The prize money included $2.77 million for coming in first place and another $739,500 for pulling in the first catch of the year that was more than 500 pounds.
The team that won boasted a marlin that weighed more than 100 pounds less than Sensation’s at 484.5 pounds.
