Fisherman Pulls in 90-Year-Old Rockfish Off Alaska Coast

yankeereefer

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Friday, April 06, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska â€" A commercial fishing boat hauled in what may have been one of the oldest creatures in Alaska â€" 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."
 
that is great but is disappointed that they kill the creature. they should have released it back to the ocean.
 
Here's the sad part:

"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 pollockpulled up an estimated 75 tons of pollock

How long do you think the oceans can support this? This is just one ship. There are armadas of these ships out every day scraping up the ocean for anything and everything.
 
The pic
thumb.7d6ce650d655460db1926d420ec0bd52.big_rockfish_ak507.jpg
 
The reality is that the ocean can and HAS supported this type of fishing activity for many centuries. However, we must be very careful not to overfish poplulations or they can become exctinct. Control is the trick.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9663819#post9663819 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EdBurhop
The reality is that the ocean can and HAS supported this type of fishing activity for many centuries. However, we must be very careful not to overfish poplulations or they can become exctinct. Control is the trick.

Sorry, not to be argumentative, but you are wrong on this one. Trawling at 2000 feet is not something we have done for centuries. Maybe decades. The massive canning ships that go out and scoop up the ocean, sift out the fish and then flash freeze or can the fish right on the ship are new and they are getting bigger and even more efficient (less fish getting away).

The sea cannot support the world population as it is now and demand is still growing. Too many Seafood Lovers' Feasts and shark fin soups.
 
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Restaurant forks out $75,000 for lucky fish

Restaurant forks out $75,000 for lucky fish

Lucky Fish?

Tue Apr 3, 10:31 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese restaurant has paid $75,000 for a giant golden-colored tiger fish, a symbol of wealth and good fortune, state media said Tuesday.

The fish, weighing in at 48 kg (105 lb), was caught Sunday off the coast of Zhanjiang in the booming southern province of Guangdong, the China News Service said.

"The restaurant agreed to display the fish... It is about 1.75 meters long and its scales shine like gold," it said.

The restaurant paid 580,000 yuan ($75,050), bargaining down from the market price of 800,000 yuan ($103,500) -- but it was still almost three times the amount someone paid for a giant tiger fish the same weight three years ago.

The fish, named "golden cash tiger fish" in Chinese, would be sold to diners at about 2,000 yuan per kg, the China News Service said, without explaining the prospect of losing money on a dish that cost the restaurant 12,000 yuan per kg.

($1=7.728 Yuan)

2007_04_04t032727_450x281_us_china_fish.jpg
 
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national geographic

national geographic

read this months national geographic on overfishing...there are serious issues right now with overfishing and the implications if it continues are huge.
 
Re: national geographic

Re: national geographic

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9668067#post9668067 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bboersma79
read this months national geographic on overfishing...there are serious issues right now with overfishing and the implications if it continues are huge.

Thank you for the post. What happens is the fishing industry does a study on pollock populations and shows that pollock populations are larger now than ever. Everybody gets warm and fuzzy and says, "See! We are doing great! Fish populations are rising." That's great. But what they don't tell you is why. They don't tell you how they are wiping out all of the other fish that compete with the pollock for food. It's ok as long as we don't care about biodiversity. At the rate we are going, treating the sea like a livestock pasture, we will end up with the ocean looking just like a cow pasture; only food animals being cultured.

In the original story about the 90 year old fish, what was it, something like 10 of these fish were caught out the the 75 tons of pollock caught? How many of those fish would have been caught 10 years ago? Dozens? Hundreds?

Check this out: "trawlers have taken a huge toll on sport and commercial fish such as Pacific rockfish, a family of more than 60 species of colorful fish uniquely adapted to the rocky reefs, rugged canyons, pinnacles and kelp forests of the Pacific coast. Marketed as Pacific red snapper or as rock cod, they are popular with fishermen and diners. Once greatly abundant, several populations are now so depleted that scientists consider them at risk of extinction.

Rockfish have several characteristics that make them susceptible to overfishing, and particularly to bottom trawling. Some rockfish species live as long as 100 years, are slow to mature and may reproduce successfully only once a decade. Because different species school together, powerful trawl gear catches the vulnerable types along with the more productive, and these deep-dwelling fish cannot survive the trauma of being brought to the surface and then tossed overboard"
 
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