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 News from Around Banderas Bay | December 2006 
Spearfisherman Goes Deep for Record Tuna
 Dave Strege - Orange County Register
Craig Petersen, spear gun in his hands, took a deep breath and descended into the blue water off Mexico's Puerto Vallarta. His target was big tuna.
How big? Something along the lines of what appears on the book cover of BlueWater Hunting and Freediving. Terry Maas is swimming to the surface with the world-record 398-pound bluefin tuna he speared.
"That image is in a lot of spearfishermen's minds," said Petersen, 46, of Laguna Niguel, Calif. "We always dream that maybe we can shoot a tuna that size. That was certainly my dream."
For it to become a reality, spearfishermen must dive where big tuna swim, spend plenty of time in the water, and have a little skill and lots of luck.
His routine is to swim down 50 feet and wait 30 or 40 seconds.
"You sit and look into the blue," he said. "Most of the time there's nothing there."
If a fish doesn't swim by, he makes the 20- to 30-second kick to the surface for air and takes another dive.
One time, he saw a tuna he figured went 350 pounds. He waited in hopes the fish would swim closer. He didn't dare swim toward it for fear of spooking it. Finally he took a shot, even though he was out of range. The spear came up short.
After that experience, Petersen vowed the next big tuna he came upon he would chase down to get a closer shot.
Last month, he joined Tom Kohl of San Diego and Joseph Acevedo of Fallbrook in diving off Puerto Vallarta, known for its big tuna.
His friends had already been diving for several days without seeing a fish.
"I told them I was going to bring Neptune's good luck," Petersen said.
And he did. Success came the first day Petersen hit the water. Kohl speared a 174-pound yellowfin tuna and Petersen a 170-pounder.
Petersen's previous best was an 80-pounder. It was a nice catch but wasn't the grand prize he was hunting for.
Later that afternoon, action was slow. Fish were scarce. As Petersen reached the 50-foot mark, he spotted his dream fish swimming toward him in the distance.
Fortunately, he saw the yellowfin tuna right away and wasn't yet out of breath.
Freedivers risk shallow-water blackout if they stay down too long. Some make the mistake of pursuing a fish when they should be surfacing.
Petersen said if he is out of breath, "The urge to breathe is much bigger than the urge to go after that big fish."
As soon as he saw the fish 50 feet away, Petersen swam aggressively toward it. This time, he wasn't going to wait.
"This fish let me close that distance to 20-25 feet before he started getting a little nervous," he said. "It was now or never."
Petersen aimed and fired, hitting the backside of the fish. He wasn't sure the tip penetrated securely. As he surfaced, he hoped it would hold.
The fish took off, taking the 35-foot shooting line, the 75-foot bungee line and the float underwater.
On the surface, Petersen handed his gun to those on the boat and waited about eight minutes before the float finally popped up 200 yards away. He swam to it and held on.
"The fish dragged me around all over the place for 45 minutes," he said.
Finally, he started pulling up the fish. When it got to within view, he swam down and brought the behemoth to the surface.
Petersen figured it weighed 250 to 280 pounds. When the captain said it was definitely over 300 pounds, Petersen thought about a world record.
On a certified scale, the yellowfin tuna weighed 317.6 pounds and eclipsed the spearfishing world record of 311.3 pounds.
"I look at the picture in my office and I say, `Gosh that fish is huge,'" Petersen said. "It almost seems like a dream."
So, what's next for Petersen, having achieved the spearfishing pinnacle?
"I'm going to focus on being a white seabass hunter for a while," he said. |
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