Amazing!
@whiteheather39 (24403)
United States
April 6, 2007 8:35am CST
Did you know fish could live so long and she was still producing babies?ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A commercial fishing boat hauled in what may have been one of the oldest creatures in Alaska -- a giant rockfish estimated to be about a century old.
The 44-inch, 60-pound female shortraker rockfish was caught last month by the catcher-processor Kodiak Enterprise as it trawled for pollock 2,100 feet below the surface, south of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle measured, photographed and documented the fish. They removed an ear bone, the otolith, which contains growth rings similar to rings in the trunks of trees.
They estimate the rockfish was 90 to 115 years old.
That's toward the upper end of the known age limit for shortraker rockfish, said Paul Spencer of the science center. Other estimates put the fish's maximum age at 157 years, Spencer said.
The contents of the rockfish's stomach were examined and scientists took tissue samples to measure her reproductive potential. "The belly was large," Spencer said. "The ovaries were full of developing embryos."Scientists said the specimen is not the biggest on record. A 47-inch shortraker rockfish was recorded, according to the book "Fishes of Alaska."http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/06/old.rockfish.ap/index.html
2 people like this
6 responses
@lonewolfnan (4366)
• Canada
6 Apr 07
It sure makes you wonder how long fish and other sea life(as well as on land) could age if mankind was not such a disturbing factor.I was thinking of the Sturgeon out here on the west coast that litterally use to live hundres of years but now the big ones are very rare to see/find.It use to be nothing to catch them over 200 lbs. but now the average size is 35 lbs or less.This magnificant monster which has been around for thousands of years could be on the verge of extinction.Well.....that's my rant for the day.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169489)
• United States
6 Apr 07
So, did they have to kill this fish, to document it? What a shame. I believe that the world, especially the ocean, is full of things, living things, that we do not know about yet. I do hate that every time we find something new, we kill it and collect it. Of course, I never did butterfly collections, either.
1 person likes this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
6 Apr 07
Since I was a child I could never understand collecting butterfliwes!. To take something so beautiful, stick a pin through it and then mount it on a board is disgusting.
@ElusiveButterfly (45941)
• United States
6 Apr 07
Fascinating. It amazes me how long some creatures can live. Thanks for the link Heather.
@hockeygal4ever (10021)
• United States
6 Apr 07
That is amazing! If that fish had a brain we could delve in and learn so much. She could talk for years!!! LOL I'm impressed that it could live so long and go through so many obvious changes in her world! I wonder what prompted them to even study her and see how old she was, other then her size?
@chaygylmommy (2469)
• United States
7 Apr 07
That is SO cool! I love to hear these things about old creatures being caught and studied. It just shows you that there is SOOO much in this universe that we are yet unaware!







