Lost Off the Great Barrier Reef : Tustin Man’s World-Record Marlin Devoured by Sharks

At Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, on almost any day during the peak marlin fishing months of October and November, some unhappy fisherman experiences the agony of Ernest Hemingway’s Santiago, the broken but undaunted fisherman of “The Old Man and the Sea.”

It happened recently to Tustin’s Ralph Miller. A black marlin that Miller’s Australian skipper said might have been the largest game fish ever caught on rod and reel, was attacked and partially devoured by sharks Nov. 27, about 20 miles outside of Cairns, Australia.

“There’s a formula you can use that involves a fish’s length and girth that can tell you within a few pounds how much a fish weighs,” said Bruce Dalman, the skipper, in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“We figured Miller’s black would have weighed around 1,620 pounds, had the sharks not eaten around 600 pounds of it.”

The all-tackle black marlin record is 1,560 pounds, a fish caught in 1953 off Cabo Blanco, Peru, by Alfred C. Glassell, Jr.

It is footage of Glassell’s world-record fish, in fact, that appears in the action scenes of the film version of “The Old Man and the Sea,” in which Santiago, who had unsuccessfully fished the gulfstream for 84 consecutive days, finally catches a once-in-a-lifetime marlin, only to see it reduced to a skeleton by sharks.

“Miller’s fish was definitely an all-tackle world-record fish,” Dalman said. “I knew that as soon as it rolled on the surface right after Miller hooked it. It was awesome. We were dragging a small, live tuna on 130-pound-test line on a very slow troll right next to the reef when it hit, at 4:50 p.m.”

At that point, according to the fisherman, Dalman, 36, got very excited.

“As soon as Bruce saw the fish, he screamed (‘bleep!’),” Miller said. “I knew it was a record-class fish, too. I’ve caught marlin in Mexico, Australia, Hawaii and Bimini. I caught an 1,100-pounder last year at Cairns, and I knew this one was much bigger than that one.

“Bruce is so experienced, he can guess the weight of those big fish within 25 pounds of the actual weight. So for the whole time, we all knew it was a big one.

“The only time he came up again was once, about three hours later. I was on him for about six hours. The last four hours, I couldn’t use my legs at all in the fighting chair, they were so tired. I was having to gain line by using the swells and waves. “Although you always worry about sharks with a big fish struggling in the water down there, we didn’t know we had a problem until about 30 minutes before the end. The fish was in deep water at about 10 o’clock when it started to feel different to me. Suddenly I could gain line, and when we got him up, there wasn’t much left.”

Miller’s fish measured 13 feet 3 inches from the tip of the lower jaw to the tail crotch, 7-6 at the girth and an even 7 feet at the anal girth.

1986, however, won’t go down as a good season at Cairns, Dalman said.

“It’s been a poor year. The trade winds came late. The big blacks spawn on the reef during October and November. After that, they go elsewhere, but no one knows where they go.”

The Great Barrier Reef, a 1,250-mile chain of coral formations off Australia’s east coast, offers the best black marlin fishing in the world in October and November.

Had Miller’s fish escaped the sharks, it probably would have been a second record for Dalman’s boat, the 56-foot Sea Strike. Nicole Denholm of Los Angeles caught a 1,320-pound black on the boat in 1981, still the Australian women’s record.

Another Southland marlin fishermen recently had an encounter with a world-class fish at the Great Barrier Reef. Dick Laub of San Diego caught a 1,260-pound black--this one untouched by sharks--Nov. 5.

Laub was fishing the reef from San Diego-based El Zorro, a 95-footer on its way around the world in search of world-record fish. Laub was on El Zorro’s 32-foot sportfisher, El Zorro Too, when the 1,260-pound marlin hit a trolled skipjack tuna.

“The fish hit about 3:30 p.m. in rough weather,” Laub said. “It was blowing hard and the water was really rough. But I got the fish to the boat in an hour and 45 minutes. It made one long run, then it was a standoff for most of the time.

“It was a female that had recently spawned, and they told me if I’d caught it before spawning, it might’ve gone 200 to 250 pounds more. It was 12 feet 1 inch from the lower jaw to the tail crotch.”