Giant tuna seized with bare hands
BEACH buggy enthusiast Aaron Cossill dragged a giant tuna to shore using nothing more than his bare hands and a hunting knife.
He and his son were driving along Ripiro Beach at Dargaville, in Northland, on Saturday when they saw what looked like a dolphin flapping in the breakers.
‘‘Its tail was thrashing from side to side as it was being hit by a couple of big waves,’’ he says. ‘‘I ran over and saw it was a huge tuna.’’
Cossill tried to hold on to the monster by the tail but to no avail.
The keen pig hunter went to retrieve his hunting gear from his beach buggy and returned to find the tide had washed the tuna from the shallows out into waist-deep water.
Cossill waded grabbed the fish.
‘‘It was kicking the hell out of me,’’ he says. ‘‘Just as well I took the time to put my hunting gear on properly because when the gills opened, I grabbed a handful, pulled the knife out and stabbed it.’’
He managed to drag the tuna up on to the beach.
‘‘I reckon it was sheer adrenaline that kicked in because I would never have been able to get it there otherwise,’’ he says. He rang a friend to come and help. ‘‘I was a bit sore the next day because you wouldn’t believe how powerful it was. I’m a keen hunter and I’ve handled a few boars over the years but nothing compared to this.’’
And he wasted no time getting stuck in to the fruits of his labour.
‘‘The meat was like tender beef and it was in good nick, nice and fat,’’ he says.
Cossill says he’s heard stories of a large tuna that washed up dead at nearby Pouto many years ago. But his tale is one for the books – and he’s got the photo to prove it.
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