The North West is known for megaships and huge fish, and footage posted to social media today shows both combining as a seafarer reels in a big meal.

Troy Fuller filmed this surprising scene of what appears to be a stonking big sailfish being reeled in off the back of a bulk carrier just off the Pilbara coast.

Fuller said he was fishing in the anchorage zone where bulk carriers wait to come in for loading.

“As we were trawling passed the ship watching the rescue boat being lowered, a massive splash popped up in front of us, and a sail ish started jumping,” he said.

“We soon realised it was connected to the ship, after about 10 minutes they had it next to the ship, they than spent the next 10 minutes trying to gaff it and drag it onboard.

“It was a good size sail, we could see it was most likely a foreign ship, which raised questions on the rules from fishing from a ship.”

Fuller said so long as Australian laws were followed, he was “stoked” the seafarers got to experience such an impressive catch.

The 330m, Panama-flagged bulk carrier Paraburdoo, which the fish was hauled onto, is anchored off Dampier tonight according to MarineTraffic.com.

It will be loaded up with iron ore from Rio Tinto’s Pilbara mines before heading back to China.