Port Aransas (KIII news) — Beachgoers in Port Aransas were in for a surprise Sunday when a giant blue marlin washed up on shore.
Denice Garza was one of the first people to see it.
"I thought it was a shark eating something and as I walked closer, I discovered it was a blue marlin," Garza said.
According to National Geographic, blue marlins are one of the biggest fish in the world and are native to the Atlantic Ocean. They can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and reach 14 feet in length.
Garza said they are a fisherman's dream.
"They spend a lot of money to go out deep sea fishing and they are lucky if they even catch one," Garza said.
However, the objective for the beachgoers on Sunday was to get the fish back into the ocean. Garza said a fisherman tried dragging it into the sea, but it would not swim. There were continued attempts to save the marlin, but it did not survive.
"Everybody wanted to save it. Everybody wanted it to swim back out and it was unfortunate that it didn't make it," Garza said.
Experts at the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will be conducting a necropsy on the blue marlin Tuesday to find out what happened.
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