Fisherman dies after attack by marlin

A fisherman was stabbed to death by a Pacific marlin he had reeled in off Acapulco.

A fisherman was stabbed to death by a Pacific marlin he had reeled in off Acapulco.

Jose Rojas Mayarita, 39, had single handedly hooked the three-metre fish from his boat then struggled with it for hours. Just as he was reeling it in, it apparently outran the line and leapt straight into the boat, landing right on top of him.

The impact sent the blue marlin's sword straight through Mr Rojas's abdomen.

For four days, the wounded man drifted in the Pacific currents until a United States helicopter on drug patrol spotted him near international waters.

Captain Antonio Pisa Vela, the harbourmaster at Acapulco, said: "This case is one in a million. On Sunday, some 500 nautical miles off the coast, a chopper swooped down over a little launch and rescued a drifter. This fisherman's pulse was weak but he was conscious enough to say what happened."

Dr Martinez Bello, assistant director of Acapulco's General Hospital, said: "The marlin's sword was no longer inside the body when the patient was brought into casualty. He was skewered right through his intestines and the poor man was in very bad shape from an infection. He never regained consciousness. Intestinal fluid leaked into his kidneys and there was renal failure."

Yesterday morning the fisherman died. No one knows what happened to the marlin.