OCEAN CITY, Md. -- Each year thousands of pounds of fish are caught during the White Marlin Open. Several hundred pounds of that fish are donated and end up in the hands of those who need it most.
Everything starts right on the dock at Harbour Island. If a crew decides to donate fish, it get fileted on-site. From there, the fish, whether it's marlin, tuna or mahi, gets brought back to Catch-N-Carry in West Ocean City.
Once it arrives, it gets cut up into steaks and is put into a blast freezer and hit with negative 25 degree air.
"It takes it through that freezing process really fast which reduces the size of the ice crystals that form in the meat which changes the texture and taste of your product," said Craig Pyle, Co-Owner of Catch-N-Carry.
Once the fish hits zero degrees, it gets bagged up and brought over to the vacuum sealer. Christina Pyle, Co-Owner of Catch-N-Carry, walked us through the process, which takes about 45 seconds.
"So now it took all of the air out of the bag," said Pyle as the whirring on the machine began.
Then after a quick beep, Pyle opened up the sealer.
"And then here we go, now these are the pieces," said Pyle holding up two vacuum sealed tuna steaks.
Once the fish is vacuum sealed it gets brought into the walk-in freezer, which can get down to about negative five degrees. It is then stored in bins and on Friday, it will all be shipped out to different food banks around the Eastern Shore.
One of those recipients is the Maryland Food Bank in Wicomico County. The second is the food pantry at Diakonia. Susan Blaney with Diakonia said all of the fresh fish helps to feed a lot of people.
"In any given day we're feeding 55 clients here, breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks, so that's going to make many meals in the next couple of months," said Blaney. "We also serve 300 plus households through our food pantry, so that's probably about five to 10 households daily that knock on our door for food assistance."
The third is Son-Spot Ministries in downtown Ocean City. The ministry has already received 107 pounds of tuna and used it to feed between 100 and 180 people at a dinner on Thursday night.
So far, 550 pounds of fish has been donated during this years tournament, with more expected to be donated after tonight and tomorrows final day of fishing.