The lifelong dream of a local teenager came true Thursday morning when he reeled in a 586-pound Atlantic bluefin tuna about 15 miles off the coast of Marshfield.Anthony Tavares, 14, was on a charter fishing boat with local Captain Tom DePersia when he snagged the fish, which weighed more than five times as much as he does, the Patriot Ledger reported.“It was awesome,” he said Thursday. “It felt like heaven to have fought so long and finally get.”Bluefina tuna is a coveted fish in the high-end markets of Japan, New York and San Francisco. An overfishing problem in the 1990s drove prices up and fisherman faced federal regulations that would have crippled the industry, DePersia said, but close adherence to fishing quotas and environmental awareness have helped the fish’s population bounce back in the region.DePersia has been running Big Fish Charters out of Marshfield for nearly 50 years, and says it common for someone on his boat to snag a tuna on about half their expeditions. What’s less common, however, is for the fisherman to be 14.“He’s been dreaming about it for years,” DePersia said. “It’s a hard job for a 14-year-old, but he did a great job reeling it in. It was a hard fight.”The day started at 7 a.m. when Anthony, DePersia and mate Joshua Speight took off out of Green Harbor Marina on Big Fish III, the charter boat run by DePersia. The boat is available for hire, but a longtime family friendship between the DePersias and Tavareses means Anthony often gets to hit the water when there are no charters scheduled.The trio spent the morning fishing for squid, which they use as bait for tuna. Anthony said the line that ultimately brought in his catch had only been in the water for about 10 minutes when it hooked the fish, but that was just the beginning.“We fought the fish for about an hour and 15 minutes,” Anthony said. “It was a ton of work, but worth it. It’s a pretty big deal to catch a tuna. ”Once the fish was reeled in, the crew cut out its stomach and filled it with ice, and draped a towel over its body to keep it wet. The boat met buyer North Atlantic Traders at the town pier, where it was weighed and tested for quality. A nice marbling, layer of fat and oily finish to the meat means it’s a good catch, DePersia said, and buyer Bubba Indorato said he expects it to go for $6 to $12 per pound once it hits the market, or between $3,500 and $7,000 for the whole fish.When asked what a 14-year-old would possibly do with thousands of dollars, Anthony laughed and shrugged.“Buy more fishing equipment, probably,” he said.Anthony says his love of fishing came from his father, Marshfield Police Chief Phil Tavares. While other kids his age are in summer basketball camps or playing video games in their rooms, Anthony says he’d rather be on the water any day of the week.“It’s good to see young kids doing this instead of sitting inside on their phones,” DePersia said. “We used to have what we called ‘dock rats’ hanging all over the docks — kids that would say ‘Oh please take me fishing, please take me out on the boat.’ In the last 10 years we’ve really seen that disappear, but not with Anthony.”When the trio pulled into town pier with a proud Anthony standing over his catch, local fishermen and residents walking the pier gathered near the boat to congratulate him. Once it had been weighed and was loaded into the back of a box truck, Indorato tossed Anthony a special souvenir — the heart of the fish. While fishermen four times his age laughed and egged him on, Anthony carried on in the tradition of many fisherman before him and bit down on the heart of his first tuna.“Well, it is tradition,” he laughed, before immediately spitting it back into the ocean.While one dream came through Thursday, Anthony is already looking to the next: snagging a 1,000 pounder.