WEBVTT 1 00:00:09.083 --> 00:00:13.823 Orange roughy, I believe. Looks like a big old one. Mike 2 00:00:13.823 --> 00:00:16.503 Vecchione is guessing that, you know, this could be more than a 3 00:00:16.503 --> 00:00:20.623 hundred years old, this fish. They aged one using otoliths at a 4 00:00:20.623 --> 00:00:26.863 139 years old. Otoliths are calcium carbonate structures 5 00:00:26.863 --> 00:00:30.903 located just behind the brain and their calcium carbonate is 6 00:00:30.903 --> 00:00:34.743 deposited in layers such that when you look at them you can 7 00:00:34.743 --> 00:00:37.863 actually see these rings. I'm not sure if they're annular or 8 00:00:37.863 --> 00:00:41.703 subanular but the bottom line is, with some experience, you can 9 00:00:41.703 --> 00:00:46.223 get some accurate ages on these fish and Mike Vecchione believes 10 00:00:46.223 --> 00:00:49.943 they start reproducing at 30 years of age and there was 11 00:00:49.943 --> 00:00:54.103 another study that showed that in this population the average 12 00:00:54.103 --> 00:00:59.183 age of the breeding fish was 73 years. That's problematic with 13 00:00:59.183 --> 00:01:02.623 a species that you'd want as a commercial fishery because if 14 00:01:02.623 --> 00:01:05.943 you fish the large ones and it takes you know, 40 to 50 years 15 00:01:05.943 --> 00:01:08.943 for them to start reproducing the healthy population again, 16 00:01:08.943 --> 00:01:13.463 you can very quickly wipe out that population.