The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

International Underwater Spearfishing Association

World Record

34.0 kg. , 75.0 lbs.

Tuna, Albacore Thunnus alalunga

Record Category: Men Speargun

Diver:		Paulo Afonso
Date:		10/2/2017
Location:		PORTUGAL

October 02 2017, around 4:00pm in my boat with Mario José (skipper), searching for tuna 5 NM offshore south side of Pico Island. It was a cloudy and windy day. The sea was choppy with strong current, 15m visibility and 19 degrees Celsius temperature. We came to an area with a lot of bird activity feeding on bait balls. With a fast run on the boat I intercepted one of these feeding frenzies, even from inside the boat I could already see silver reflections of tuna rolling right beneath the surface. I quickly threw my Float line system overboard and jumped in right on top of the action with my speargun already previously loaded by myself. I immediately saw dozens of tunas that began to scatter away once they felt my presence. With a dive very poorly prepared due to the urgency I promptly started descending trying to select a fish from the shoal that now was all around me, always a difficult task. Then I focused on this fish that crossed in front of me a little closer than the rest but still 4 - 5 m away and at about 10m deep I took a confident shot slightly from above and behind, hitting the tuna in its center posterior third sector. By the time I reached the surface he had already stretched the first 30m bungee and the 11L rigid float was sinking slowly. I knew I had a good holding shot so I grabbed the bungee and started pulling up right away. Once I had it on the surface I just went for a bear hug, hand grab on the gills and after some splashing and toing around I finally dispatched the tuna with my knife. Got in the boat and pulled the fish in after me. Already knew it was a Longfin but only then I realized it was a huge one.
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