I know of one reliable report that tells of finding a cormorant, which is a type of diving bird, inside a jewfish's stomach. This happened in the days when jewfish were legal to keep. At least 750 documented, scale-weighed pounds. This question will trigger a lot of stories and tall tales among the locals, but there's no set answer to it. Remember, water imparts a 25 percent magnification factor.
Imagination accounts for another ten, and if the diver is also a fisherman, all bets are off.
While on a dive in the Gulf two summers ago, I encountered a real whopper of a jewfish lying motionless under a ledge. Signaling my dive partner to watch what I was doing, I gently lay on the bottom less than two feet from the giant, positioning my head even with his lips and stretching out along his entire length. As my dive buddy surveyed the entire scene, I noticed her eyes widen in astonishment. I am 6 foot 10 with my toes pointed, the fins add another 15 inches, yielding a total of 8 feet 1 inch. Now comes the tall tale.