BELFAST — A Belfast soup kitchen had a tuna weighing 600 pounds donated to its community last week from a lobster fishing crew that thought they had hooked a seal.
The crew members from J & J Lobster were catching bait on the coastline when they felt the big bite, New England Cable News reported.
It turned out to be a massive bluefin tuna.
“It was an adrenaline rush to say the least,” the owner of J & J Lobster, Jamie Steeves, said.
The crew was not initially authorized to bring the tuna to shore, since they were fishing specifically for bait. But Steeves called the state Marine Patrol, which said it would allow the crew to bring the fish in if they could find a place to donate it.
They reached out to the Belfast Soup Kitchen and its executive director, Cherie Merrill.
“They said, ‘We just got a 600-pound tuna, can you take it?’ And I never say no to anything,” Merrill said.
Volunteers from the kitchen and J & J Lobster salvaged about 300 pounds of meat from the tuna.
The first tuna steaks were served to people on Tuesday. The kitchen regularly serves 150 people for five days of the week, according to the news site.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.