And you thought the Post Office was slow...

[VelvetElvis]

This is a new twist on the old message in a bottle:

TOKYO (AFP) - A letter that a young girl in Japan sent into the sky in a balloon some 15 years ago has been found on a fish hauled from 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) below the Pacific.
 
A fisherman found the still legible piece of paper sitting on a sticky flatfish in his catch on Thursday, along with a torn-off string and the fragment of a red balloon.

He opened the folded paper, discovering it was a handwritten letter from a six-year-old girl at an elementary school in Kawasaki, 150 kilometres (93 miles) away from where the fish was caught off Choshi port.

The sender, Natsumi Shirahige, and her friends released letters as part of events to mark the school's 120th anniversary, which was in 1993.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080125/od_afp/japanpostanimaloffbeat_080125183046

[Wretched Excess]

how long does a flatfish live?

[VelvetElvis]

how long does a flatfish live?

It depends on the species.  Pacific Halibut are very long-lived,  50 years +.
They didn't identify the species, and it's not clear whether they think that the fish was swimming around the last 15 years with the letter.  He may be a very slow reader, as is common with fish.