>>2544559Despite what many believe, sport fishing isn't about big fish or large numbers of fish, not directly. It's about challenge. Sometimes it's a challenge to catch a big fish, and sometimes it's a challenge to catch a lot of fish, but there's a distinction here because it can also be very challenging to catch one small fish. The challenge is what's important.
You can dip a commercial fishing net into the ocean and come out with literal tons of fish. Commercial fishing isn't about challenge at all, but about harvesting in quantity. In some cases, meat quality/purity (tuna and pufferfish in Japan, for example) may take precedence over quantity.
The problem with big-game ocean fish in terms of their value in entertainment media is twofold: First and foremost, fishing for marlin is a rich man's sport. No one ordinary can afford a boat that costs tens of thousands at a bare minimum, but more usually hundreds of thousands of dollars. The fuel and maintenance costs are also huge, and billfish rods and reels cost thousands of dollars as well. No one can see themselves doing this rich man's sport because they aren't multimillionaires, whereas everyone can see themselves fishing freshwater. Rich man shit isn't relatable and no one wants to watch it.
The other reason is that it's just not entertaining watching some guy trawl around with a military-grade sonar over a flat expanse of ocean you can't even see into and then work a winch to pull up a billfish. It's barely sporting, because the boat, tackle, and electronics are doing 99% of the work. Seeing a man wade into a swamp, disappear, and come up with a catfish noodled onto his arm is way, way more entertaining than a rich man's huge machines gifting him a big fish in the middle of nowhere.
