What a catch! Giant 90-year-old fish reeled in off Alaska

[DansDarkSide]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/06/old....ap/index.html

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A commercial fishing boat hauled in what may have been one of the oldest creatures in Alaska -- a giant rockfish estimated to be about a century old.

The 44-inch, 60-pound female shortraker rockfish was caught last month by the catcher-processor Kodiak Enterprise as it trawled for pollock 2,100 feet below the surface, south of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.

The Seattle-based vessel, owned by Trident Seafoods, pulled up an estimated 75 tons of pollock and 10 bright-orange rockfish.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle measured, photographed and documented the fish. They removed an ear bone, the otolith, which contains growth rings similar to rings in the trunks of trees.

They estimate the rockfish was 90 to 115 years old.

That's toward the upper end of the known age limit for shortraker rockfish, said Paul Spencer of the science center. Other estimates put the fish's maximum age at 157 years, Spencer said.

The contents of the rockfish's stomach were examined and scientists took tissue samples to measure her reproductive potential. "The belly was large," Spencer said. "The ovaries were full of developing embryos."

Scientists said the specimen is not the biggest on record. A 47-inch shortraker rockfish was recorded, according to the book "Fishes of Alaska."

Wow, I did not know fish could be that old

[waltky]

Granny says, "Throw it back in, we runnin' outta fish...

Environmental Report Warns Global Fish Supply Under Attack
February 22, 2008 - A new report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) warns that the world's supply of fish will grow smaller as the planet grows warmer; impacting millions of people in developing nations who depend on fishing for their livelihoods.

It noted that the worst effects of a combination of climate change, over-harvesting, bottom trawling, invasive species infestations, coastal development and pollution are concentrated in 10 to 15 percent of oceans - far higher than previously thought. The report claims that the climate change associated with rising greenhouse gas emissions threatens at least three quarters of key fishing grounds, and could affect the 2.6 billion people who derive their protein from seafood.

The ocean's natural pumping systems, which bring nutrients to fisheries and also help flush out wastes and pollution, are under threat. Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will raise the acid level in seas and oceans, which will hurt corals and planktonic organisms at the base of the food chain. "Climate change threatens coastal infrastructure, food and water supplies and the health of people across the world," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said. "This is as much a development and economic issue as it is an environmental one."

The report was compiled from the agency's various research hubs, including the GRID Arendal Centre, World Conservation Monitoring Centre and Division of Early Warning and Assessment. It noted that the worst effects of a combination of climate change, over-harvesting, bottom trawling, invasive species infestations, coastal development and pollution are concentrated in 10 to 15 percent of oceans - far higher than previously thought.

The study, In Dead Water, was launched at UNEP's Governing Council, generally known as Global Ministerial Environment Forum, which ended on Friday in Monaco. Focusing on the theme "Mobilizing Finance for the Climate Challenge," it is the largest gathering of environment ministers since last December's landmark UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, which ended with 187 countries agreeing to launch a two-year process of formal negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol.

Environmental Report Warns Global Fish Supply Under Attack | February 22, 2008 | AHN