To what age do you think a fish can live? Two, five, maybe ten years? Have you even thought about it?

Some fish have been found to live up to 150 years of age! One such species is the orange roughy. Many deep ocean dwelling fish, such as orange roughy, have long lifespans. But with the long lifespan comes slow reproduction rates. Some humans start reproducing earlier than these fish; orange roughy reach sexual maturity at around 25 - 30 years!

These life traits have made the orange roughy particuarly susceptible to overfishing. Population estimates are thought to be less than 10% of those of the early 1990s as a result of over-exploitation. What's more the methods used to catch this species, trawling the sea bottom, have a high rate of bycatch (non-target species) which can include turtles, seals, sharks and a whole range of unwanted, or undersized fish species.  

Given, these guys may not be as cute as pandas but their population numbers are about as threatened, not to mention the huge impacts involved in catching them. For sustainable seafood choices avoid orange roughy, also marketed as 'deep sea perch' or 'sea perch'.

Image courtesy of Mar-Eco