A Wellington lawyer has broken a longstanding record while spear-fishing off the west coast of Wellington.
Eddie Jackson with his record catch. Photo: RNZ / Emile Donovan
While hunting kingfish at Makara last Saturday morning, Eddie Jackson, 25, caught a 6.155 kg blue warehou - the heaviest ever speared in New Zealand waters.
It beat out the previous record, which was caught in the same area in 1973, by just 25 grams.
The feat was particularly rare because the school was just five metres under the water. Blue warehou generally live at a depth of 50m to 200m.
Mr Jackson said he had no idea he had broken the record until a friend saw a picture of the fish and told him to have it weighed officially.
"So I put it up on the boat, didn't get too excited, chucked it in the chilly bin, put it on ice, I just carried on with my dive. So we had no idea until about an hour later.
"We'll have dinner some time next week on it - something special. Has to be a bit more than fish and chips, I guess!"
Mr Jackson said the record was provisional, and could be challenged for the next 30 days.
