Scottish man crowned champion of eating picked baby gannet

PORT OF NESS, Scotland, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A Scottish oil rig worker set a record by eating half a pickled baby gannet and 14.1 ounces of potatoes in just 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

Peter Macritchie, 33, ate half of a guga, the Gaelic name for a gannet, and his required serving of potatoes in 3 minutes and 44 seconds Saturday at the World Guga Eating Championships at the Ness FC Social Club in Port of Ness, Scotland, the Scotsman reported Monday.

Macritchie finished just a second ahead of second-place finisher Willie Macritchie, who is not a relative.

Donald Macsween, organizer of the event, said Peter Macritchie was crowned world champion and set what organizers consider to be a world record for guga eating.

"We applied to the Guinness Book of Records to enter and ratify the attempt but they never replied," he said.

He said the real prize of the event was "the honor and the glory of being world champion."

Ness is the only remaining place in Britain where young gannets, large black and white birds, are hunted for their meat. The region received an exception from British and European laws against the hunting of seabirds due to the traditional yearly hunt.

"The guga is an important part of our heritage and history and very much a part of who we are in Ness. We are very proud of the guga," Macsween said.