The friend who was with Knittle tried to grab his line, but was unsuccessful. Knittle was visible on the surface for only a few seconds until he disappeared, according to police.
Rescuers continue to search for Knittle days after the giant tuna pulled him overboard. Hawaii Island police also have launched a missing-person investigation for Knittle, a resident of Captain Cook, Hawaii.
Officials said the plan was for personnel with the fire department and Coast Guard to conduct a 72-hour sea and air search for Knittle. Unless the search is extended, that effort is expected to wrap up sometime Wednesday.
Neither the Hawaii Police Department nor the Coast Guard immediately responded to requests for comment early Wednesday. Darwin Okinaka, Hawaii County Fire Department assistant chief of operations, told the Associated Press that while many of these types of incidents happen along the coastlines, Knittle’s situation is different “because it’s out in the deep.”
“If there’s a fish that’s actually pulling him around, you don’t know where he could go,” Okinaka said.
Known as a highly sought game fish for both its taste and the battle that goes along with reeling them in, ahi can weigh up to several hundred pounds. Police listed Knittle at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds with curly brown hair and a white mustache and beard.
“When hooked, Ahi tuna usually do not jump, but they will make sudden sideways turns and swim in large circles,” according to Whipsaw Sportfishing, a charter fishing company based in Oahu. “Considering their weight, this can be an exhausting experience, and you will have to have patience while trying to reel them in.”
January is considered to be a fair time of year for tuna fishing off the Big Island, experts say. The peak fishing months for ahi there are often between June and September.
While fishing is largely safe, Knittle’s disappearance isn’t the first time a big fish has pulled a fisherman overboard in Hawaii. In 2019, Oahu resident Matthew Moribe went fishing with his wife 24 miles off the south shore and was pulled into the water while trying to reel in his catch, according to Hawaii News Now. The 39-year-old’s body was never found.
Charter fisherman Bruski Louis told KHON in Honolulu that he’s known several instances where people have been pulled overboard.
“Luckily, they got free from the line and they just swam back to the boat,” he said. “But, unfortunate incidents, some people can just get stuck and get dragged down.”
There have been other fishing accidents across the United States in recent years. Bodies were found in the Potomac River in separate incidents of missing fishermen in 2013 and 2016. In 2017, an Alaska fishing boat captain risked his life to rescue one of his crewmen from choppy, frigid waters after their day of trawling for salmon turned into distress.
The National Park Service recommends that anyone who goes fishing wear a life jacket when on, in or near the water.
“Don’t take the chance of drowning, wear your life jacket!” the NPS wrote in a news release. It’s unclear whether Knittle was wearing a life jacket.
Authorities are asking that anyone with information regarding Knittle or the incident call the police department’s non-emergency line at 808-935-3311.
About 5 a.m. Sunday, Knittle and his friend, who has not been publicly identified, were fishing near the “C” buoy, four miles outside the Hōnaunau Boat Ramp on the Big Island, according to police. Sometime around then, Knittle hooked the ahi. His friend told authorities that he jumped into the South Pacific to search for the fisherman. But it was too late: Knittle was gone.