In 1813,
President James Madison occupied the White House, Americans occupied Fort
George in Canada (a result of the War of 1812) and a rockfish was born
somewhere in the North Pacific.
Two
hundred years later, that same rockfish was caught off the coast of Alaska by
Seattle resident Henry Liebman — possibly setting a record for the oldest
rockfish ever landed.
Troy
Tydingco of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game told the Daily Sitka Sentinel that the longevity record for the
shortraker rockfish (Sebastes
borealis) is 175 years, but that fish "was quite a bit smaller
than the one Henry caught."
"That
fish was 32-and-a-half inches [83 centimeters] long, where Henry's was almost
41 inches [104 cm] — so his could be substantially older," Tydingco said.
Samples
of the rockfish have been sent to a lab in Juneau, where the actual age of
Liebman's fish will be determined, according to the Sentinel.
Scientists
can estimate the age of a fish by examining an ear bone known as the otolith,
which contains growth rings similar to the annual age rings found in a tree trunk.
Animal longevity remains a puzzle to biologists. Some
researchers have found that smaller individuals within a species tend to live
longer than their bigger brethren. This may be due to the abnormal cell growth
that accompanies both larger body size and the risk of cancer.
The longest-lived animal ever found was a quahog clam scooped
from the waters off Iceland. The tiny mollusk was estimated to be 400 years
old.
At 39.08
pounds (17.73 kilograms), Liebman's fish may also set a record for the largest
rockfish ever caught.
"I
knew it was abnormally big, [but I] didn't know it was a record until on the
way back — we looked in the Alaska guidebook that was on the boat,"
Liebman told the Sentinel.
He plans
to have the fish mounted, so he can continue to tell the fish story that
he's already been "getting a lot of mileage" out of, according to the
Sentinel.
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