A 200-year-old fish has been caught by a fisherman in Alaska.
Henry Liebman of Seattle was fishing off the coast of Alaska on June 21 when he reeled in a gigantic shortraker fish that was swimming 900 feet below.
"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 told The Daily Sitka Journal.
The ginormous orange rockfish weighs 40 pounds and is a common fish in Alaska that can live at a depth of over 2,500 feet.
Liebman's catch could be a record as analysts from the state Department of Fish and Game believe that it could be over 200 years old. The age of the shortraker is determined by the number of growth rings along its earbone.
The 41-inch fish could break the current record of a minnow that was over 200 years old but measured at 32-and-a-half inches.
"That fish was 32 and a half inches long, where Henry's was almost 41 inches, so his could be substantially older," Troy Tidingco, Sitka area manager for the department told the paper.
A sample of the fish was sent to a lab in Juneaw, the state capital, to determine its age.
Liebman says he plans to have the fish mounted at his home in Seattle.
