Angler catches 200-year-old giant fish in Alaska

A man has caught a fish in Alaska that is thought to be more than 200 years old.

Henry Liebman, an insurance salesman from Seattle, reeled in the 39-pound and 41-inch-long shortraker rockfish from a depth of 900 feet.

According to the Daily Sitka Sentinel, the fish broke the old record of 38.69 pounds for a shortraker caught using sport fishing gear.

Troy Tidingco, of the state Department of Fish and Game, told the newspaper that the fish could be around 200 years old.

"The rougheye is the oldest-aged fish at 205," he said.

Tidingco added that the longevity record for shortrakers, which are often confused with rougheyes, is 175 years but that fish "was quite a bit smaller than the one Henry caught."

According to Live Science, the longest living animal ever caught was a quahog clam plucked from waters off Iceland. The tiny mollusc was estimated to be around 400 years old.

"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 guidebook that was on the boat," Liebman told The Sentinel.

He plans to have the fish mounted so he can continue to tell the story of the fish he caught.

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