Another Coelacanth Caught in Indonesia!

After almost ten years, another coelacanth was caught in Indonesia.On May 19, 2007, a fisherman named Justinas Lahama and his son Delvi Lahama, caught a four foot, 110lb coelacanth off Manado Bay, North Sulawesi province. It lived for 17 hours in a quarantined pool. While this has been attempted several times in the Comoros with a similar survival rate, the May 19 resuscitation attempt is the first known effort in Indonesia. The fish was caught near the Bunaken National Marine Park, where fishing with shark nets has been banned for almost a decade. For the full story of the Indonesian coelacanths see the Indonesian "Discovery" article in Recent History on this site, and the Sulawesi ROV piece below. This catch made the international wire services!

Photos by Hentje Lumentut, a journalist of Manado Post (Jawa Pos News Network)

Recent Diver sightings in South Africa

May 20, 2009

Peter Timm, one of the discoverers of the Sodwana coelacanths, sighted two coelacanths on 20 May 2009. He was diving with three Trimix divers from Andromede Oceanology, a French company led by the biologist and photographer Laurent Ballesta. The three French divers followed Peter into a cave in Jesser canyon and photographed two coelacanths on their first attempt. Good images of the right side of both animals were taken. These will be used to update the catalogue of images of South African coelacanths. Initial analyses suggests that both animals are new individuals not seen by the Jago team or previous Trimix dive expeditions, but the images still need to be compared with those taken during the 2005 Remotely Operated Vehicle based expedition. The larger of the two was approximately 1.5 m and the other was estimated at slightly smaller than this (around 1.3m). The water temperature was about 19 degrees C. Divers also saw yellow fin soldiers, pineapplefish and contour rockcod in the cave with the coelacanths. (courtesy Rk Nulens via SAIAB).

Feb. '07: Divers claim to have sighted two coelacanths in plunge at Sodwana, South Africa, a known coelacanth habitat:

From Sheldon Brown:

Our first dive was an 83m dive on rebreathers and Twin sets. This dive became the highlight of the trip when we spotted 2 x Coelacanth at 83.3 MSW. The first was approx. 1.6 m long and the second about 1.5 meter long, and estimated weight probably at about 80-100kg. They were orientated , head down in almost vertical positions. The water temp at 19 Deg Celsius.at 83m and 26 Deg C on the surface. We kept our distance from the fish and they were quite undisturbed by the rebreathers. Because of the depth we soon had to leave to adhere to our run times, of 115 minutes, but for all of us on the dive, it was definitely a dive to remember!

ROV Expedition seeks to film coelacanths in Comoros

The private yacht, Octopus, arrived in the Comoros, July, 2006, in an attempt to film coelacanths using an ROV with a high definition camera. The yacht's remotely operated vehicle dove in the vicinity of the "Descent to Cave 4" described on this site. Bad weather and time constraints hampered the effort and no coelacanths were found. The yacht's crew kindly made a contribution to the Coelacanth Research Center. This was the second known attempt to film coelacanths in the Comoros using an ROV. The first, by Japan's Toba Aquarium, in 1989, met with modest success. On October 9, 1989, the Toba group observed three coelacanths at 184 meters deep in the Banbani area, using their RTV 300 remote controlled underwater TV camera. (Photo courtesy Said Ahamada.)

Kissing Cousins!

In a Brief Communication to the science magazine, Nature (Vol 435|16 June 2005May '05), the Fricke Dive Group and two German DNA researchers, Manfred Schartl and Ute Hornung, reported that the recently discovered East African coelacanths are genetically similar if not identical to the Comoran coelacanths. Their conclusion was based on analysis of tissue samples from both groups. The implication of this finding is that because of prevailing currents, the East African colonies were founded by "dead end drifters" from the Comoros. (This, of course, is a disappointment to many South Africans who were hoping for their own species!) The writers speculate further that all the Western Indian Ocean coelacanths may have arrived by drifters from the Pacific province far to the East in the past several million years. (Hence the Indonesian discoveries.) JH   

May '05. A Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) under the direction of Dr. Kerry Sink,replaced the submersible Jago in '05's investigation of the South African coelacanths. Eight coelacanths were sited at 110m on one dive, and one on a dive the day before. Some were the same individuals identified by Jago and some were new. The "Falcon" ROV was said to be less invasive (and less expensive!) than the sub, but it's data acquisition capabilities seemed more limited.   

Thanks to Dinofish.com contributors (see Coelashop Hall of Fame elsewhere on this site) Deep Release Kits of the Type II variety were distributed to fishermen in the Comoros through Said Ahamada and the Society for the Preservation of Gombessa on the island of Grand Comoro. In November, 2000, the devices were introduced for the first time on the Comoran island of Anjouan, where coelacanths are also caught and virtually no conservation program existed. The DRK II is a plastic bag attached to a barbless hook packaged in a pocketable plastic change purse. When sinker stones are placed in the bag and the hook on the Coelacanth's lower jaw, an accidentally caught Coelacanth can be lowered back into the cold water on the ocean floor without further stress. The DRK II is easier to produce and is more durable than the DRK I which previously was sewn to the back of a T-Shirt. Both were invented by Jerome Hamlin based on the deep release concept submitted to dinofish.com by Ray Waldner. Presently more kits are being sent to the Gombessa Association in the Comoros. (Gombessa is the local name for coelacanth.) Meanwhile, Said Ahamada, our contact in the Comoros, has received matching support from the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) in the form of 100 lamps to encourage shallow level fishing, and a motorized patrol boat.

 
Coelacanth Rescue Mission T-Shirts Raise Local Coelacanth Awareness

More CRM T-Shirts were donated to Comoran fishermen throughout the year 2000 and into 2001/2002. T-Shirts are very popular in the "fashion conscious" Comoros. They are often worn to shreds and must be replaced from time to time.