GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/10 September) — Fish port workers here will attempt on Thursday to put up a display of around 50 metric tons (MT) of tuna in less than 15 minutes as the city bids to capture the Guinness world record for the largest fish display.
Paris Ayon, food safety chief of the General Santos Fish Port Complex, said Wednesday they are targeting to display around 2,000 pieces of various freshly-landed tuna species for the world record try, which is aimed to boost the city’s standing as the “Tuna Capital of the Philippines.”
He said the event, which is among the highlights of the ongoing 16th Tuna Festival, will take place at the main market shed of the fish port complex starting 5 a.m.
“The landed tuna will be displayed at the stainless bidding tables and then moved for weighing in the fastest time possible,” said Ayon, who is the event’s organizer.
Based on the dry runs that they conducted, Ayon said it will take between four to seven seconds for each tuna to undergo the process.
He said their computation showed that they could complete the process for 2,000 pieces of tuna in about 12 minutes or three less than their original target of 15 minutes.
“So if we’re targeting around 2,000 pieces of tuna at 25-kg each, we will need to complete each process within (the four to seven seconds range) to make up for the 50 MT display,” he said in an interview over TV Patrol Socsksargen.
Ayon said the event will not be witnessed by an adjudicator from Guinness as they had to spend around P1 million just to bring one to the area.
But he said the entire activity will be properly documented through official records, photographs and videos that will later be submitted to the Guinness World Records office in London.
He said the results of Guinness evaluations usually come out three days after the submission of the documents.
“(But) we had email exchanges with Guinness after we filed our application and it was them that advised us to focus on coming up with a new record for the largest fish display,” he said.
Ayon said they originally applied to come up with the longest grilled tuna that would fall under the Guinness record for the longest barbecue.
Guinness records showed that the world’s longest barbecue, which measured at 8,000 meters or 20,246 feet, was established by residents of Bayambang town in Pangasinan province in April this year.
It said the record attempt took place during the Malangsi Fish-tival, which coincided with the town’s 400th founding anniversary.
Guinness has no specific world record for the largest fish display but it acknowledged the largest seafood display established by Schmidt Zeevis and Wichter Steller of Schmidt Zeevis in Rotterdam, Netherlands on June 26, 2011.
The display consisted of 2,271.7 kg or 5,008 lb of seafood that was achieved with the help of executive chef Erik Troost and his team on the Lido deck of the SS Rotterdam, Guinness said. (MindaNews)
