Update on the Louvar Story

This morning we had a lenghty converation with Joe Estrada the 45 year old owner of an auto glass replacment business in San Antonio, Texas who claims that the 300 lb louvar, caught in Cabo on Thursday and circulated on the internet actually pertains to him and his two friends, Wayne Tauer who runs a boat repair shop and Greg Graham, a parole officer. Joe told me that they had already fished a couple of days with Dr. Pescado II and had a good time with the crew, they were out again on Thursday when the captain, Oscar, spotted the large orange shape just off of Land's End. Joe told me that they were amazed and had no idea what the fish was, though the captain knew it was good eating. "The fish was up on the surface and swimming in circles, it was missing a part of it's tail and there was obvioulsy something wrong with it", stated Joe.  They pullled up close to the fish and gaffed it and soon had it tied to the swimstep. 

"We wanted to head back with the fish" Joe said, "we knew it was an unusual catch". But the captain said "the dorado bite is good, let's stay and fish and I will find somebody to take it back". The captain got on the radio and the phone and made contact with the Marina II, who came and met up with them. They briefly tied the fish to the buoy to make the transfer from boat to boat so that they could float it and avoid the risk of losing the heavy fish.
They continued fishing and caught a dozen doardo, before heading back. As soon as they tied up to the dock, some guys approached and showed them a picture of their fish and when they asked where it was, they were told that it had been filleted and distributed to local people around the marina. We asked Joe what his captain's reaction had been and he said "he felt betrayed".
The video clearly shows that the fish was still quite lively and when asked about this Joe said "I don't know if I would have done the same thing (kill the fish) but that fish was not going to survive with half a tail". What disappointed Joe though was the way things were handled and the fact that he did not get to try a single bite of what is know to be a delicious species.

Joe did add "I like the fact that everbody was fed, I hate to see fish go to waste and I am glad that so many families got fed" when asked what it took away from this incident he said "Trust your instinct. I knew we should have headed back straight away with that fish and insistited upon it. All these guys work hard for a living and you can't put eveybody in same category, just because of one bad apple", he stated, referring to the captain of Marina II.