Posted on 04/06/2007 4:03:02 PM PDT by blam
Photo in the News: Century-Old Fish Caught in Alaska
April 6, 2007A handful of Christians preparing rockfish as part of their traditional fish dinner this Good Friday might be feasting on one of the oldest creatures ever to live in Alaskan waters.
Commercial fishers in the Bering Sea recently hauled in the female shortraker rockfish seen above, which scientists say was between 90 and 115 years old. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used growth rings in the fish's ear bone, or otolith, to make their age estimate.
NOAA scientists also found that the fish's advanced years had yet to take a toll on its reproductive abilities.
"The belly was large," NOAA researcher Paul Spencer told the Associated Press. "The ovaries were full of developing embryos."
A Seattle, Washington-based ship caught the 44-inch-long (112-centimenter-long), 60-pound (27-kilogram) fish while trawling for pollock at about 2,100 feet (640 meters) below the surface. The massive mama was among ten shortrakers pulled from the depths along with roughly 75 tons of the smaller commercially fished species.
The fish's age and size both approach the maximum known limits for shortrakers. The largest on record measured 47 inches (119 centimeters) long, and the oldest ever caught was 157 years.
Victoria Jaggard
Looks like it has been already cooked! ;)
I wonder if the meat is tough?
Reminds me of the story of the old fisherman who stumbles on an isolated saloon. Going inside, he sees an ageless barmaid, and he askes if she has any Old Taylor Whiskey. She replied, with some enthusiasm, “Mister, we have both.”
Why didn't they throw it back (after measuring it)?
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Hey, I'm Norwegian on one side and English on the other. I could have lutefisk with Marmite! But I think I won't.
to bad they killed it before asking if the water is getting warmer due to global warming
Oops... I just wrote "Cocker Spaniel Blues" and may not have remembered to have published. I'm now working on "Down Home Artichoke Blues"... Stay tuned.
Well, fish have healthy, low cholesterol diets. They eat fish.
It sure looks like what we used to call Red Snappers, off the Oregon coast.
Back then, it was always good to catch a small Red Snapper to use as live bait to catch extremely large Lingcod.
As for Rockfish, we used to call those things democrats.
"How do you eat fish?"
"Spread its fins and...(never mind)."
Probably tastes like fish...
It is a shortraker rockfish...click the link, there is a pick of three men, each one holding a fish, that looks exactly like the one in the pic on this thread....
Shortraker rockfish is what it is...thanks, Strategerist, for the correct information...
http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/groundfish/RockfishGuide/Rockfish_Pages/Shortraker_rockfish.htm
What did the blind man say when he walked by the fish market?
I’ve caught that exact same fish in the Persian Gulf, the S China Sea, the South tip of Korea, and offshore near the Warri River of Nigeria.....there are also “green snapper”. I’m sure this fish is cosmopolitan.
ok
“Howdy, ma’am.”
oboy, PETA will have a friggin field day on this. “Christians kill pregnant fish full of hundreds of pre-born fishies.”
YOu see, they’re only fish, birds, whatever, before they are born when it’s every other animal except a person.
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