Man harpoons 50-kg leerfish in Dardanelles

ÇANAKKALE - Demirören News Agency

A man diving into the Dardanelles has caught a 1.7-meter (5.5-feet) long leerfish weighing 50 kilograms (110 lb) with a harpoon.

Çetin Ege Doğan, who is engaged in freediving as a hobby, set out to sea to catch fish that can rarely be caught in the Dardanelles.

Diving to a depth of 20 meters, Doğan caught leerfish weighing 50 kilograms and 1.7 meters long.

“I chose the most beautiful and the largest of the leerfish and made my shot. Since I couldn’t hit the fish in the right place, it dragged me out into the open. After a long struggle, thanks to my knowledge and experience, I brought the fish to the shore,” he said.

Stating that he saw leerfish and tuna driving the mullet herd into a corner during the dive, Doğan said, “For the first time, I saw tuna and leerfish hunting together. It was a great memory for me.”

Expressing that he has been hunting for many years, Doğan said, “I don’t think other diver friends have ever encountered such a situation.”

The leerfish, or garrick, is a species of marine fish in the family Carangidae and is native to the Mediterranean and the coastal waters of western Africa to the coastal waters of eastern South Africa.

They inhabit the coastal wave zone where they form small shoals to hunt other smaller fish, favoring mullets.