Sunday, April 8, 2007

Giant Hundred-Year-Old Fish Eaten in Alaska

During the Christian Holy Week recently, Alaskan followers of the faith kept tradition and deferred from eating red meat. Fish was one the menu for several days and some of them may have dined on hundred-year-old shortraker rockfish, a favorite during that time of year. This one pictured here (112 cm and 27 kg) caught by fishermen recently in the Bering Sea has been established by scientists to be between 90 to 115 years old and still fertile. Researchers of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used the growth rings in the fish's ear bone or otolith to make the age estimate. The oldest ever caught was 157 years old.

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