16 ALBACORA 



just as hard to hold once they have bitten. During bat- 

 tles, albacora combine the leaping fury, which has 

 made striped marlin famous, with the fatiguing tenac- 

 ity of bluefin tuna, specimens of which have fought 

 fishermen for more than twelve hours at a time. Even 

 as we sailed from Iquique that June morning, Lou and 

 I were not so scientifically detached that we could really 

 abandon our lifelong pursuit of Bosco, the fabulous 

 king of the albacora. 



Every fisherman in the world knows that Bosco swims 

 somewhere in the ocean, defying the best of us to catch 

 or even track him down. Boat captains have told me 

 that the legend of Bosco originally sprang up in the 

 Bahaman island of Bimini where the natives told out- 

 landish stories of a mighty blue marlin. In most of the 

 tales there was a vivid picture of Bosco, the angry 

 marlin king, rearing up with his great rust-colored bill, 

 smacking the bait, taking the bait and every inch of 

 tackle with him, and then driving off again to freedom. 

 But in Nova Scotia anglers paint a different image of 

 Bosco. The hardy fishermen of Wedgeport near the 

 Grand Bank are certain he is a bluefin tuna, too relent- 

 less a fighter for even the finest sportsman to outlast, 

 who idles at a point called Soldier's Rip. At Cabo 

 Blanco in Peru the old ocean guides vow that Bosco 

 is a black marlin, sleek but bigger than any fish they 

 have ever seen. Lou and I cling happily to another 

 theory. We believe that Bosco roams the Humboldt near 



