Oldest Cod you'd ever get in the North Sea would be no more than 14 years old , oldest on record from Barents Sea around 25 years old , Coley/Saithe live to 20 years old in the North Sea the oldest I ever aged was around 25 years old ( 118cm long ), you age whitefish and pelagic fish by counting the rings on the Otoliths ( like a tree there is a ring for summer growth and a narrower ring for winter )
This Hake is probably close to 20 years old going by the size of it Martin , as for wiser fish nope the sea is literally full especially of Hake and Cod in the North Sea , when we would be lucky to see 5t of Hake a year 30 years ago some of the boats are landing 25t for 4 days fishing today , same with Cod in the Summer we would be lucky to see much more than maybe a couple of ton a trip from east of Aberdeen but now some boats have been getting 4 or 5t hauls in areas where historically you just wouldn't get Cod.
A lot fewer boats now with nets made of larger mesh , smaller diameter twine , escape panels for small immature fish to escape so a lot more fish now than at anytime in the last 50 years
