General Santos bids for largest fresh fish display

Fish operators in General Santos City display 946 pieces of tuna weighing a total of 33.61 metric tons. Organizers hope the display would be recognized by the Guinness World Record. Photo courtesy of CIRILO ANOTADO

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines–Local officials here are delighted the city surpassed the world record for the largest display of fresh fish and hope that Guinness World Records would recognize the feat.

The Guinness record is currently held by the Netherlands, which managed to put up a display of 4.5 metric tons of fish, according to Mayor Ronnel Rivera.

On Thursday, some 20 fishing boat operators brought their tuna catch to Market 1 of the Gensan Fishport Complex to participate in the city’s attempt at setting a new record.

For 15 minutes, the fresh yellow-fin tuna were neatly piled up on stainless bidding tables before being weighed.

Based on the count and record taking by lawyer Rey Cartojano, there were a total of 946 tuna, with the smallest weighing 25 kilograms. All together, the fish on display weighed 33.61 metric tons, Cartojano said.

“The figure has an overwhelming 29.11 metric ton difference from the current world record,” Rivera declared.

But it remains for Guinness to officially recognize it as a record, Rivera said, admitting that no Guinness adjudicator was present when the feat was accomplished. He said it would have cost the city around P1 million to have brought in a Guinness adjudicator.

Nonetheless, Rivera said there was a possibility Guinness would take cognizance of the documentation the city government has done, including photographs and videos, and officially declare the feat a record.

“These will be sent to the office of the Guinness World Records in London,” he said. “I am happy that we made it through after a lot of scrupulous preparations and adherence to the guidelines set by the Guinness World Records. I think with that, I can finally see Gensan holding the title of the largest fish display.”

The city is the acknowledged “Tuna Capital of the Philippines.” Tuna built what Gensan is now – one of the country’s economically progressive places.