A Seattle resident has caught a 39-pound, 41-inch-long shortracker rockfish in Alaska that scientists have estimated to be around two centuries old.
If the age is correct, it would be the oldest shortracker ever caught, and one of the oldest fish ever captured period according to the Daily Sitka Sentinel.
"There is a strong correlation between length, age and weight," said Troy Tydingco, an area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to ABC News. "We have some fish that have been aged upwards of 200 years that have been smaller than this one."
Henry Liebman, the fisherman who caught the record breaking fish, has passed it to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for age verification.
"The rockfish's ear bone grows one ring for every year it lives just like a tree would," said Julie Speegle, a public affairs officer for the National Marine Fisheries Service. "By counting these rings we can determine its exact age."
A shortracker rockfish can live for around 120 years and are the second-longest-living of all rockfish. The only rockfish that lives longer is the Rougheye rockfish which can live for over 140 years.
Liebman, who caught the fish on June 21, said he is just happy he caught the fish that no one really goes after. The fisherman had to drop "a bunch" of halibut bait down around 900 feet to catch the fish.
"I've been fishing all my life and I went out targeting this species," Liebman said to ABC News. "I just wanted to try and catch one because no one fishes for them."
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