Woman Lands Half-Ton Marlin in Hawaii, Just Misses World Record

A 28-year-old woman fishing a tournament in Hawaii reeled in a massive half-ton marlin that would have won the tournament and broken records in the process. But as it turns out, neither happened, thanks to good, old-fashioned honesty.

From this story in the Washington Post:

A 5-foot-9-inch woman tournament fishing in Hawaii waters fought a 12-foot marlin more than four hours before getting it on her team’s boat and weighing it at more than a half-ton — a would-be world record. But 28-year-old Molly Palmer is missing out on the glory and thousands in tournament prize money for one pesky reason: Her team’s honor code. Cheating would have been easy and tempting. The Big Island Invitational Marlin Tournament runs in part on an honor system and Palmer, her captain and crewmates put up roughly $9,000 to enter last week.But the Kailua-Kona angler said it wasn’t a question of whether or not to cheat — her team just wanted to reel in the big catch. So they disqualified themselves and Palmer’s crewmates helped pull the monstrous fish aboard.

According to the story, Palmer needed to reel in the fish by herself in order for it to qualify as a valid catch for the tournament. Wow. The self-reported disqualification is a bummer, but kudos to Molly Palmer and her team for having the integrity and honesty to do the right thing.

Stay tuned to fieldandstream.com for more details on this amazing story.