Giant 90-year-old Rockfish caught in Alaska

A commercial fishing boat in Alaska caught a giant rockfish that is estimated to be about a century old. The 44-inch, 60-pound female shortraker rockfish was caught last month south of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.

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.

The contents of the rockfish's stomach were examined and scientists took tissue samples to measure her reproductive potential. Her ovaries were reportedly full of developing embryos.