Seattle resident Henry Liebman caught a fish off the coast of Sitka, Alaska that may be 200 years old, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported.

Last week, Liebman, an insurance adjustor, was fishing on one of his frequent visits to Sitka when he reeled in a 39-pound shortraker rockfish, which is an Alaskan record itself.

"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 said.

A 38-pound fish previously held the record for shortrakers in Alaska, but the record for any rockfish belongs to a 62-pounder caught in the Bering Sea in 2007.

The fish is also believed to be extremely old and one expert said Liebman's catch could be the oldest.

Troy Tidingco, Sitka's manager for the state Department of Fish and Game, certified the catch and estimated the fish to be about 200 years old, but noted he could say exactly how old. He also said the oldest fish on record is a 205-year-old rougheye, a fish often mistaken for shortrakers.

The oldest shortraker on record is 175, but Tidingco said that fish "was quite a bit smaller than the one Henry caught."

"That fish was 32 and a half inches long," he said. "Henry's was almost 41 inches, so his could be substantially older."

Samples taken from Liebman's catch were sent to a lab in Juneau, which will be able to accurately report the fish's age.

Rockfish like the one Liebman caught are believed to dwell anywhere from 84 feet underwater to 4,000 feet. The fisherman said he was fishing at a depth of around 900 feet and ten miles from shore.

Kristen Green, a ground fish biologist for the Alaska Fish and Game Department, told the Los Angeles Times events like this are as sad as they are exciting.

"There is always a feeling that it is sad when something this old is taken from the sea, but this is a drop in the bucket compared to what the commercial fisheries take," Green said. "He just happened to be fishing at a really deep depth. Most recreational fisherman don't fish that deep."

Liebman took the fish home with him to Seattle and said he plans to have it mounted.