Gensan eyes world record for biggest fish display

General Santos City is seeking to set a new world record for the biggest fish display by displaying 33 metric tons of one of its most famous products—tuna.

 

A report on MindaNews on Friday said fish port workers in the city displayed the tuna, weighing 33.61 metric tons, for about 15 minutes Thursday.

 

“I’m sure no other (port) will be able to surpass this achievement before Guinness will release its evaluation for the activity,” said event organizer Cecilia Egasan.

 

Egasan added this should cement General Santos City's status as the Philippines' tuna capital.

 

The world record attempt is one of the highlights of this year's 16th Tuna Festival, organized mainly by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA).

 

General Santos City hosts six of the country’s seven tuna canneries and related ventures. These lead to annual export receipts of nearly $300 million.

 

Tuna Festival assistant director Paris Ayon said they achieved their target of breaking the Guinness record for the largest fish display, which featured part of its tuna catch for the day.

 

MindaNews said the festival organizers first wanted to set a record for the longest grilled tuna but were advised by Guinness to work on a record for the largest fish display.

 

It said Guinness has no specific world record for the largest fish display but has acknowledged the largest seafood display by Schmidt Zeevis and Wichter Steller in the Netherlands on June 26, 2011.

 

The display consisted of 2,271.7 kg of seafood.

 

Properly documented

 

While the event was not witnessed by an adjudicator from Guinness World Records, it was documented with official records, photographs and videos.

 

Ayon said they will submit the documentation to the Guinness World Records office in London.

 

He said they tapped personnel from the AMA Computer College in the city to document the weighing of the tuna catches. He said they expect the results to come out by next week.

 

Egasan said the freshly-landed tuna had been initially displayed at the bidding tables of the fishport’s market 1 and then weighed by workers with digital weighing scales.

 

She said they surpassed the world record in less than six minutes but continued the process to complete their 15-minute target.

 

Organizers initially targeted to put up a display of around 50 metric tons of tuna or some 2,000 25-kg pieces for the record attempt.

 

As early as 5 a.m., MindaNews reported workers at the city fish port complex started unloading tuna from 20 fishing boats at the port. Each boat unloaded 60 pieces of tuna weighing 20 kg.

 

Meanwhile, city councilor Shandee Llido, who chairs the council’s committee on tourism, said the potential world record could attract more tourists to the area. — Joel Locsin/VC, GMA News