A 4.4m blue marlin that washed up at Little Beach

A 4.4m blue marlin that washed up at Little Beach, east of Albany, on Tuesday night is one of the biggest recorded in Australia.

The female measures 3.68m from lower jaw to tail and will probably crack the fisherman's legendary 454kg mark, Department of Fisheries officers, who removed the fish yesterday, said.

Fisheries regional manager Kevin Donohue said blue marlin rarely washed up in the Albany area because it was the southern extremity of their range.

"It would be the first time a marlin that size has been recorded in WA," he said. "The previous largest was a 330kg blue marlin recorded in Exmouth by a game fisherman."

Mr Donohue said fisheries officers worked quickly to remove the fish so the carcass would not attract sharks.

There is no car access to Little Beach, so two officers pushed the fish into the water while another two brought a boat from Two Peoples Bay to take it away.

A woman fishing from rocks on Tuesday night reported the distressed marlin swimming in the cove.

The WA Museum is interested in studying the fish. The world record is a 624kg blue marlin from Hawaii and the Australian record, from Batemans Bay in NSW, is 452.2kg.