A trawler has caught the largest HALIBUT ever landed off the coast of Britain – a 440LLBS monster big enough to make 650 fish suppers.
Fishmonger Mal Rowley tweeted a picture of himself and the 200kg beauty which was brought into the docks of Grimsby, North Lincs.
Mal, 39, explained how surprised everyone was when he showed people the image of the 8ft fish.
He said: “None of my customers had ever seen a fish this big because the way shoppers see fish is all portioned up in packages. No one ever actually sees the raw fish product.”
Mal added: “It’s just such a shock to people who only ever see small portions.”
Mal owns his own fishmonger business, Northern Shoal, and has been selling fish to customers in Manchester and Cheshire for the past five years.
But hailing from Grimsby himself, Mal knows just how good it is to go back to the town famous for fish and get his products from there.
He said: “Grimsby is definitely the best place for fish. It would make more sense for me to buy my product from the West Coast but there is nothing like Grimsby for fish.
“It’s still one of the main ports and one of the best places.
“People can taste the difference when they’re eating fish from Grimsby – the quality, range and availability is one of the best.”
Mal said that he only purchased a small portion of his big fishy friend when it was up for sale about five months ago but admitted he’d love to find another one that big.
He said: “I’d love to see another one that big – it’s definitely got people talking!”
The previous record for a halibut caught in Britain was, in comparison, a 150 pound tiddler caught off the Shetland coast.
The largest halibut in the world was caught by German angler Marco Liebenow, who snared the 37 stone, 9ft long beast in Norway in 2013.
