Fort Greene Teen Catches Gigantic Marlin Off Hawaii Coast

Fort Greene teen Kai Rizzuto’s winter recess story is sure to make a splash with his classmates.

The 16-year-old came just shy of hitting the record books with his giant 1,058-pound blue marlin catch off the coast of Kona, Hawaii this past week — a feat that his grandfather Jim told NBC News only comes around twice a year.

“For my first one to be a grander it’s just an unreal experience,” Kai Rizzuto, 16, told NBC News on Thursday. On average, only two so-called granders — blue marlins weighing more than 1,000 pounds — are caught in Kona each year, said Jim Rizzuto, Kai Rizzuto’s grandfather and local fishing columnist.

It took Kai half an hour to reel in the 11-foot marlin from his perch on a rented 45-foot Monterey fishing boat; by the time it was pulled on deck, it was already dead.

Kai’s holiday haul falls 502 pounds short of the record for the largest marlin ever caught, according to the New York Daily News and Marlin Magazine.

He told the Daily News that he had “never felt anything close to that amount of force. There’s nothing I can compare it to,” and that he’s considering a career in marine biology.

The marlin was cut up and used to feed hundreds of people at local Kona restaurants.