Ray Bolanos' Halibut Sniffed Out At Anchorage Airport

It might be considered a fishy end to a big fish story. Ray Bolanos' 40 pounds of halibut have turned up and boy, does it stink.

As ANN reported, the Seattle-area fisherman and his wife had been on a fishing trip in Alaska. They both caught massive halibuts. Ray (shown above with his catch) took the fish to a local seafood shop and had the haul carefully packed in two coolers for the airplane trip home June 24th.

That's when half his halibut went on hiatus.

Oh, Ray got both coolers, all right. But one of them had been opened. The rope that secured it was inside and the fish were gone.

Last week, the Anchorage Daily News reports something smelled... well, fishy... in the Continental Airlines baggage handling area at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

Let's face it, the place had begun to stink.

"We've gone through a few cans of Lysol," Brenee Davis told the Anchorage Daily News. She's Continental's general manager in Anchorage. The fish was found underneath the baggage conveyor Continental shares with Frontier Flying Service.

Her theory is that the airline's new conveyor system at Anchorage somehow bumped the fish out of the cooler. Bolanos is a bit dubious.

"She was trying to say that maybe the new conveyor chewed off my rope," Bolanos said. "It's not something that was chewed off. It was a clear cut."

Bolanos said his wasn't the only fish to go AWOL in the baggage bay. He pointed to another passenger on a different flight, saying her fish were filched as well. He said Miriam Maxwell had packed about 20 pounds of fish in her luggage. The fish, some fishing tackle and a box of .38-caliber shells were missing when her luggage rolled out at SEA-TAC.

If the halibut was indeed hijacked, the person who took it is paying with his nose. The entire Continental/Frontier Flying Service baggage handling area stinks like yesterday's diapers. Davis said the stench will probably last for awhile. "We're still finding it," she said. "We've got a long bag belt system."

FMI: www.continental.com