One that got away for 100 years

The Herald, October 31, 1992

SOME fishes, like The Herald, can live, to 100. A monster sturgeon as big as a minibus has been caught in China’s Yangtze River, and scientists estimate the fish could be 100 years old.

The female sturgeon, which weighs 500kg and is 5,2 metres long, was netted by scientists.

“Experts say it is the biggest and oldest ever caught in the Yangtze,” Xinhua news agency said.

It could, in fact, be the biggest fish ever caught. The Guinness Book of Records currently lists the catfish-like pa bleuk as the biggest freshwater fish.

One specimen caught in northern Thailand was three metres long and weighed 242kg.

LESSONS FOR TODAY 

 Studies have shown that the life expectancy of fish normally boils down to their sizes. Smaller fish generally have a shorter lifespan than larger fish. In addition fish that lay eggs typically live longer than those that give birth to live young ones.

 The largest sturgeon on record was a beluga female captured in the Volga Delta in 1827, measuring 7,2m long and weighing 1 571 kg. Most sturgeons tend to move upstream to spawn but most of the time they live and feed in river deltas and estuaries.

 A study carried out in 2016 showed that the longest living fish is the rarely seen Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus), which can live for 392 years  and possibly even longer.

 The largest living mammal is the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) while the whale shark is the largest species of any fish. It is known to reach more than 12.19 metres in length.