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"Fish" a grenade from World War I 0:45
(CNN) - A fish weighing 350 pounds (158 kilos) was caught in southwest Florida, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said on Facebook.
The huge fish, identified as a Warsaw grouper, was caught with a hook and a line on December 29 at about 180 meters deep, according to the FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
The photos shared by the FWC on Facebook show the fish hanging with a man standing next to him.
"The FWRI Age and Growth Laboratory biologists estimated that the age of this fish was 50 years, so this is the oldest sample collected for our aging program," said the FWC. "The acquisition of this fish's otolith was extremely valuable since the samples of larger and older fish are unusual."
The otoliths are the hard structures located behind the brains of bony fish, according to the FWC. They help the fish to listen, maintain balance and orient themselves.
Scientists use the growth structure of otoliths to estimate the age of a fish.
The groupers of Warsaw can grow up to a length of 2.2 meters and weighing 263 kilos. The record for the largest captured in Florida is almost 200 kilos.
"The mere Warsaw is characterized by a second elongated spine," said the FWC. “It is the only grouper with 10 spines; everyone else is 11. Although adults are generally at depths of 55-215 meters, occasionally juvenile fish are seen around docks and shallow water reefs in the northern Gulf. ”
The FWC said that "it does not encourage the selection of the grouper of Warsaw", since the population of the species in the Gulf of Mexico is not known.
Pescapescado