The Alaskan rockfish believed to be 200 years old sure looked good for its age - too good, in fact.
The Mark, Age and Tag Laboratory of the Alaska Fish and Game Department determined that the fish, caught by a Seattle man on June 21, was actually 64 years old, according to a Fox News report Tuesday.
Troy Tydingco, the Sitka area manager with the fish and game department, told The Alaska Dispatch, "The fish was so big, so there was potential for it to also be an old fish. I think everybody was surprised it was so young."
The fish weighed in at 40 pounds and was 3 feet long, larger than normal for rockfish of that age. "I would guess that the genetics and a good environment had something to do with it," said Tydingco.
The fish's true age was determined by an analysis of ear bones in the fish called otoliths, which grow as the fish does, and can indicate age much like tree rings, the Dispatch report says.
Before the fish's age was verified, angler Henry Liebman received some criticism for keeping the fish instead of returning it to the ocean.
However, others say the fish would probably have died, given the depths at which it was caught, according to the Fox News report. Liebman was fishing at a spot 10 miles off the Sitka coast, at a depth of 900 feet. Rockfish have been found at depths of about 4,000 feet.
The oldest rockfish on record was 205 years old. Tydingco said that 64 was a "run of the mill" age for a rockfish.