[GODREKR]

Record-Sized Rockfish May Also be the Oldest

A record-breaking rockfish was hauled in near Sitka last week.
Henry Liebman reeled in the 39.08-pound shortraker late last week, breaking the old record of 38.69 pounds for a shortraker caught on sportfishing gear.
The age of the fish hasn’t yet been determined, but that too might be a record, a fishery expert said.
Liebman, an insurance adjustor who works in Seattle, said he frequently visits Sitka to charter fish, so he knew that he had a large fish on when the shortraker struck.
“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 guide book that was on the boat,” Liebman said.
A fishery biologist said this shortraker may have been patrolling Sitka’s coast since the time of Alexander Baranov.
Troy Tidingco, Sitka area manager for the state Department of Fish and Game, certified Liebman’s catch, and said this fish might be in the neighborhood of 200 years old.
“The rougheye is the oldest-aged fish at 205,” Tydingco said. He said the longevity record for shortrakers, which are often confused with rougheyes, is 175 years. But that record fish, he said “was quite a bit smaller than the one Henry caught.”
“That fish was 32 and a half inches long, where Henry’s was almost 41 inches, so his could be substantially older.”
Samples of the fish have been sent to a lab in Juneau where the actual age of Liebman’s fish will be determined.
Rockfish live at depths that range between 84 feet all the way down to almost 4,000 feet. Liebman said he was fishing at a depth of around 900 feet, 10 miles out when his giant shortraker took his bait.
The fish went back to Washington with Liebman, who plans to have it mounted.
He also took home a big fish story that he said he’s already been “getting a lot of mileage” out of.

Source

[candice81]

way to go! Kill it, now its dead....

[Faline]

Yeah they could have slung it back.

[rapeWhistle]

Originally Posted by candice81 ↗

way to go! Kill it, now its dead....

It was like 1000ft down where he hooked it.
Once you bring it up to the surface it's already dead.

It's not like a bass in 5ft of water you can just 'throw back'.

[kellyhound]

bet there are even bigger ones down there

[Sharon]

Wow

Shame he had to die though

[Drastic85]

Just think of all the events of world history that have happened since that thing has been alive. ..........not that it cares.

[mothmon]

That really made his day! The fisherman, not the fish, of course.

[Cassius]

200 year old fish - wow - wonder how they came up with that number.

[Kanda444]

Originally Posted by rapeWhistle ↗

It was like 1000ft down where he hooked it.
Once you bring it up to the surface it's already dead.

It's not like a bass in 5ft of water you can just 'throw back'.

exactly. when i was a deckhand, nearly every rockfish we brought up (usually close to 100 fish was the limit for a full boat) had it's air bladder coming out of it's mouth from the pressure. they cant stay upright when that happens and they drown.