The Coelacanth - South African Coastal Information Centre

Fishy Facts: The Coelacanth 

What is a coelacanth? 

The Coelacanth 

ICHTHOS 

A coelacanth (pronounced "seel-uh-kannth", "selekant" in Afrikaans) is a large marine lobe-finned fish 

belonging to the Order Coelacanthiformes, a group of primitive bony fishes. 

In 1836 Louis Agassiz described a fossil fish in his book Poissons Fossiles and called Coelacanthus because the 

spines that project from the vertebrae to the caudal fin rays were hollow (coel, Greek for "space" and 

acanthus spine). This was the first coelacanth to be described. 

Some descriptions of the 

coelacanth 

"the world’s best known biological 

curiosity" 

"the most important fish in the world" 

"a great, primitive looking fish" 

"a great sea lizard " (deck hands on the 

Nerine) 

"It was so beautiful at first I wanted to 

set it free..." (Capt.Goosen) 

"the most beautiful fish I had ever seen" 

(Majorie Courtenanay-Latiner) 

"Look carefully at this fish .It may bring 

you good fortune. Note the preculiar 

double tail, and the fins." (From the JLB 

Smith) 

What does the coelacanth look like? 

An adult coelacanth can grow at least to 180 cm in length 

and weigh 98 kg. It is dark blue, changing after death to 

grey/brown. Each fish has a distinctive pattern of pinkish 

white blotches that enables scientists to distinguish one 

individual from another. 

Anatomical features 

The coelacanth has several very distinctive anatomical 

features. 

The head 

The skull is in two parts with an intracranial joint which 

allows up and down movement between them. A strong pair 

of muscles beneath the skull-base lowers the front half of the 

skull, giving the coelacanth a powerful bite .The coelacanth is 

the only living animal with that structure. 

The eyes and olfactory organs are in the front part of the 

skull, and tiny brain and inner ear are in the rear. 

In the middle of the snout is a large cavity filled with a jelly-like sac which opens to the outside through three 

pores. This sac is called the rostral organ .It may be used to detect weak electric currents and help the 

coelacanth to find hidden prey. 

The fins 

Coelacanths belong to a group of bony lobe-finned fishes and have 8 fins (2 dorsals, 2 pectorals, 2 pelvics, 1 

anal and 1 caudal). Ray-finned fishes such as bass or perch (in fact most fishes expect sharks and rays) 

usually have only one dorsal fin. In ray-finned fishes the fins have a basic structure of bony, flexible fin rays 

with a web of skin stretched across them. The fin rays can flex slightly so that the fish “fan” or “scull” its fins. 

The first dorsal fin of the coelacanth is much like that of other fishes and can be folded down or erected. The 

other fins have a well-developed, muscular, limb-like basal lobe projecting from the body wall, and a fringe of 

unbranched rays like a fan attached to the outer end of the base. The fleshy scale -covered lobe can be bent 

or rotated so that each fin can work like a paddle or sculling oar. The caudal fin (tail) has three divisions: a 

characteristic small projecting middle lobe between the longer upper and lower lobes of the fin. 

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The skeleton 

External anatomy of the coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae 

Internal anatomy of the coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae 

Most of the skeleton is made of cartilage. In place of the vertebral column, a large notochord extends from the 

skull to the tip of the caudal fin. The notochord is a thick-walled cartilaginous tube filled with oil-like fluid 

which is under slight pressure; it is tough and elastic and does the job of a backbone, since no complete 

vertebrae are developed around it. In most other vertebrates the notochord is replaced by vertebrae in the 

embryonic stage of development. 

The scales 

The body is covered with hard scales with small toothy-like growths called denticles on the outer surface 

which protect the coelacanth from the rocks and predators. 

The swimbladder 

The skeleton of Latimeria showing the hollow notochord (indicated by the 

arrow) 



Unlike most fishes which have a gas-filled swimbladder, the coelacanth has a large swimbladder that is filled 

with fat. Being lighter than the seawater, the fat provides buoyancy. 

How the coelacanth swims 

The lobed fins are extremely mobile and can be rotated through 100 degrees. The coelacanth can swim fast 

for short periods, but it usually swims around slowly using its paired and median fins as sculls to push itself 

through the water. When cruising the fish works the right pectoral fin in tandem with the left pelvic fin and 

vice versa. The coelacanth likes to hover near the sea bottom with all fins fully extended - a beautiful sight to 

see. The paired lobed fins are not used to “walk” on the seabed or, as with lungfish, to prop the fish up off the 

bottom or push it against it. It seems rather to avoid touching the ground. When started, it darts forward at 

speed using the large caudal fin. Sometimes it performs a head stand, keeping its snout to the sea floor and 

rotating its rigid body to an upright position. It may then make use of the electro-receptive rostral organ to 

find prey on the bottom. 

The coelacanth, Latimeria chulamnae, as a living fossil 

Why is the coelacanth important to science? 

Palaeontology is a Greek word for the study of prehistoric plants and animals. Fossils are the remnants or 

impressions of plants and animals that lived before the present. The original meaning of the word “fossil” is 

derived from the Latin verb “fobere”, to dig, as fossils were usually encountered as petrified artifacts 

preserved in rock and stone. Charles Darwin coined the term “living fossil” to describe the East Asian ginkgo 

tree, but not mean by that a fossil that had somehow come w4s tree, but not mean by that a fossil that had 

somehow come back to life. Rather he meant a life that had evolved very little for million of years-a case of 

arrested evolution. Examples are cycads, elephant shrew and broad-nosed crocodiles. The closest relatives of 

“living fossils” have been extinct for a long time. 

The fossil coelacanth, Whiteia, from the Triassic, which was discovered in 

the Orange Free State 

The scientific discovery of Latimeria chulamnae in 1938 caused a sensation in the scientific world because it is 

the only living member of a very old group of fishes, the actinistians (Coelanacanthimorpha). About 120 

species of coelacanths are known from fossils. They were predominantly small marine fish (though some lived 

in freshwater) which were thought to have died out at the end of the Mesozoic era more than 60 million years 

ago. They flourished in the Triassic; a fossil of a coelacanth (Whiteia) was discovered in the Orange Free State 

which dates to that time .The Coelacanthimorpha and lungfishes are separate side-branches of the primitive 

fish group that gave rise to the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Although Latimeria is not a “missing 

link” in the story of evolution, it is the sole survivor of a line of development that otherwise became extinct. 

From the anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and behaviour scientists can learn much about the processes of 

evolution. 

The story of the coelacanth and the Christmas connection 

How the coelacanth became known to science 

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer 

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was born in East London on 24 th February 1907. From the childhood she was 

interested in birds and mammals, and fossil collecting was also a hobby of hers. In 1930 she was appointed 

Curator of the newly established East London Museum which had at that time a very small collection of bird 

specimens. She worked hard to create a display of natural history of the Eastern Cape. Since fishing was a 

major local industry, she decided to concentrate on marine life. She interviewed fishing clubs and managers of 

fishing trawlers; specimens were enthusiastically donated and she made mounts of the small fish. She first 

met JLB Smith, then a Lecture in Chemistry at Rhodes University College, in December 1933 when he visited 

the museum during a camping trip at Igoda. He had been advised by doctors to spend his vacations in the 

open air because of ill health, and his love of angling soon turned into scientific interest .He was very 

impressed with the work she was doing, and offered to help her with any specimens which might want to 

classified, because she had on books on fish at the museum. 

In November 1936 she and her parents visited Bird Island where she spent weeks amassing a huge collection 

of sponges, seaweeds, sea shells and bird eggs. She also went out to sea in the Irvin & Johnson trawler, 

Nerine, and made friends with the Captain, Hendrik Goosen, who took her crates of specimens back to East 

London and thereafter saved interesting fishes from the trawl nests for her attention. 

On December 22, 1938, Captain Goosen and the Nerine put into East London harbour with the usual catch of 

sharks, rays, starfish and rat-tail fish. But there was one unusual fish amongst the catch that had been caught 



in about 70 meters, near the mouth of the 

Chalumna River. Once ashore Captain 

Goosen left word at the Museum that there 

were several specimens at the ship for Miss 

Latimer. At first she said that she was too 

busy because she was hard at work cleaning 

and articulating the fossil reptile bones 

collected from Tarkastad. But as it was so 

near Christmas time she decided to go and 

wish the crew a “Happy Christmas” and took Miss Courtenay-Latimer's sketch of the first coelacanth which she 

a taxi to the docks. There, attracted by a 

posted to JLB Smith 

blue fin amid the pile of sharks, she found a magnificent fish. She and her assistant put it in a bag and 

persuaded a reluctant taxi driver to take it to the museum in the boot of the car .It measured 150 cm and 

weighed 57.5 kg. From its hard bony scales with sharp, prickly spines and paired fins looking rather like legs, 

she knew that it must be some kind of primitive fish. But her greatest problem was to preserve it until it could 

be identified. It was extremely hot, the fish was too big to go into a bath and she could not find any 

organization willing to store it in a freezer. Although she was told by experts that it was only a type of rock 

cod and that she was making a fuss about nothing, she persisted in her attempts to save the fish for science. 

At first it was wrapped in cloths soaked in formalin but eventually, on the 26th, Mr. Center, a taxidermist, 

skinned it. Unfortunately the internal organs were thrown away. Marjorie went home disappointed and worried 

that she had not saved all the soft parts. What she had done, however, was to write immediately to her 

friend, JLB Smith, and send him her famous sketch of the strange fish. 

James Leonard Brierley Smith 

The next part of the story concerns JLB Smith, at that time enjoying a working holiday in Knysna. The next 

fourteen years of his life were to be dominated by this coelacanth and an almost obsessive search for the 

second specimen. JLB Smith, born in 1897 at Graff-Reinet, was a self-taught ichthyologist who had published 

several papers on the marine fishes of South Africa. He knew at once when he opened Marjorie’s letter that. 

Though the last coelacanths were supposed to have died out with the dinosaurs, he was looking at a drawing 

of a fossil fish: 

“One of my most constant and peculiar obsessions had always been a conviction that I was 

destined to discover some quite outrageous creature” 

He sent to Cape Town for a copy of Arthur Smith Wood-ward’s Catalogue of Fossil Fishes of the British 

Museum and, after he had received it, positively identified Marjorie’s unusual fish as a coelacanth. But he did 

not commit himself or risk his reputation in the scientific community until, some time later; he traveled to 

East London and saw the specimen for himself: 

“ Yes, there was not a shallow of doubt, scale by scale, bone by bone, fin by fin, it was a true 

coelacanth. It could have been one of those creatures of 200 million years ago and come alive 

again.” 

He gave the fish its formal scientific name, Latimer chalumnae in honour of Miss Courtenay-Latimer who had 

preserved it, and the river near which it was trawled. From January to June 1939 JLB Smith and his young 

wife, Margaret, worked furiously on the first scientific paper describing the coelacanth, completing it just four 

days before the birth of their son William. All this time the coelacanth, pervasive smell and all, stayed in their 

house. It was then returned to be displayed at the East London Museum. Thousands of people visited the 

museum to see the famous fish. 

How fishes are named 

In zoology and botany names are 

important. Taxonomy is the science of 

the principles of classification. Each 

distinct kind or ‘species’ must have its 

own name. In 1758 Karl von Linne’ 

(Linnaeus) from Sweden devised a 

system of naming (nomenclature). In 

this system generic names must be 

unique and species names must not be 

used more than once per genus. Each 

species has its own (a binomial i.e. in 

the two parts) plus the name of the 

scientist who first formalized the name 

e.g. Homosapiens Linnaeus. JLB Smith 

named a fish Pseudocheilinus 

margaretae after his wife, Margaret. 

Captain Eric Hunt and the second 

coelacanth 

It was Christmas time 14 years later the next great chapter 

in the coelacanth story was written. 

Convinced that he East London coelacanth was a stray and 

that the home of this fish was to the north in the 

Mozambique Channel, Smith distributed posters offering a 

reward of one hundred pounds (£100) to anyone finding 

another specimen. Meanwhile, in 1949, his Sea Fishes of 

Southern Africa was published. He and his wife traveled 

extensively to Zanzibar, Tanganyika, Mozambique and Kenya 

collecting fishes, talking about the coelacanth, and 

distributing the reward posters. It is a strange fact that, 

although the coelacanth was well known to the local 

fishermen of the Comoros (the home of the coelacanth) and 

called gombessa by them, nothing more was heard about it 

until Christmas 1952. 

Whilst in Zanzibar the Smiths had met a young Captain Eric Hunt, who operated a small trading schooner 

between the Comoro archipelago (then French territory) and the mainland. He knew fishes well but had never 

seen a coelacanth. Wanting to help the Smiths in their search, he took some posters to the Comoros where 

they were widely distributed amongst local fishing communities. At his last meeting with the Smiths, he had 



asked Margerat what he should do in case he found a coelacanth, as there were no refrigeration facilities in 

the Comoros, and she told him the only thing he could do was to preserve it in salt. 

On December 24th 1952 the Dunnottarr Castle, bringing the Smiths back from the expedition, reached 

Durban and a telegram from Hunt (which had been sent on from Grahamstown) was urgently delivered to 

them. In it was the exciting news which almost drove Smith mad with frustration: Hunt had in his possession 

a five foot specimen of the coelacanth, injected with formalin, which had been caught on the 20th off Anjouan 

Island. He wanted to know what to do with it! The telegram had been sent from Dzaoudzi, at Mayotte. 

JLB Smith did not know exactly where Dzaoudzi was, let alone how to retrieve the specimen before the French 

did, since it had been landed on French territory. This coelacanth had been caught by a fisherman named 

Ahmed Hussein, whilst fishing at night from a dugout canoe in deep water about 200m from shore. A 

schoolteacher saw it at a local market where it was being cleaned, and he recognized it as the fish on the 

poster. The fisherman and his friends were then persuaded to take the huge decomposing fish 40 km overland 

on a hot day so that Hunt, a “responsible person”, could take charge of it. He slit the fish and salted it as he 

been told to do. 

It was a French medical officer on Mayotte who kindly donated hid entire formalin supply to inject the 

specimen and save it. The fish was then wrapped in cotton and put in a crate, and that is how Smith first saw 

it when he arrived in the Comoros on December abroad a SA Air Force Dakota loaned to him on the authority 

of the then South African Prime Minister, DF Malan. He knelt down on the deck to get a closer look at it and, 

so moved by emotions, this famous scientist found he was crying. The coelacanth was taken back to South 

Africa, and the fisherman duly got his reward. 

Aboard Hunt's vessel after the identification of the 

second coelacanth. JLB Smith is in the centre of the 

photograph and Eric Hunt is on the left 

Professor Hans Fricke 

Prof. Hans Fricke, a German scientist from the Max. 

Planck Institute used a two-man submersible, Geo, to 

observe and film Latimeria in its natural habitat. After a 

fruitless series of daytime searches he learnt from a 

local fisherman that the coelacanth was always taken at 

night and was even shown the places where they were 

caught. On his first night dive he encountered “this 

magnificent beast” and for him a dream had come true. 

He filmed it swimming around gracefully and slowly, 

seemingly unperturbed by the submersible’s lights. He 

was able to show that during the day Latimeria retreats 

into caves, but at night it cruises slowly over the sea 

bottom, presumably looking for food. He observed the 

coelacanth’s most impressive behavior, the headstand: 

sometimes these huge animals stand for more than two 

minutes vertically in front of the submersible. 

Because the specimen lacked the first dorsal fin, 

Smith thought that it must be a new genus and 

species, and he proposed the name Malania 

anjounae (The absence of the first dorsal fin was 

apparently due to an injury when the fish was 

young). But it turned out to be the same species 

as Latimeria chalumnae. 

The reward incentive resulted in the subsequent 

capture of over 150 coelacanths in the Comoros. 

The French kept most of the specimens and for 

the next 15 years only French scientists were 

allowed to search for the coelacanth in the 

Comoros. Several papers and three large 

volumes on the anatomy of the coelacanth were 

published by a French team under the direction 

of Dr Jacques Millot. 

The German submersible, JAGO, which is used by 

scientists to look for coelacanths under the sea 

On a subsequent expedition in 1991, using the submersible Jago, Hans Fricke ‘s team (which included Dr.Phil 

Heemstra of the JLB Smith Institute) found several individuals together in a cave. The scientists also 

discovered that coelacanths live at depths far deeper than previously believed, i.e. 150 m to more than 700 

m. 

The Mozambique coelacanth 

The day before Christmas 1991, a third chapter in the coelacanth story began. Prof Mike Bruton, Director of 

the JLB Smith Institute in Grahamstown, received a fax from Reuters informing him that a female coelacanth 

had been caught off Mozambique, and that the specimen was lodged in the Natural History Museum of 



Maputo. The fish had been captured at depths of 40-44 m over a sandy bottom, about 24 km offshore, 

northeast of Quelimane in central Mozambique. Again it was a case of the discerning trawler captain (the 

Japanese captain of Vega who recognized the fish immediately as a coelacanth), the informed museum 

director (Dr Augusto Cabral, Director of the National Museum of Natural History in Maputo), the anxious 

scientists, and the lack of reliable refrigeration, which led to the adult being skinned and the internal organs 

discarded. The fish had been accidentally catch in the trawler’s nets in August and stored in the onboard 

deepfreeze with the caught; but as the ship was out at sea for some months the news only reached 

Grahamstown at Christmas time. 

Meanwhile Dr Cabral instructed his staff to skin it 

and noticed that it had a very swollen belly. When 

it was dissected it was found to contain 26 babies 

which were almost ready to be born. They ranged 

in length from 308 to 358 mm and weighed 

between 410 and 502 g. Dr Cabral had the 

babies, or “pups” as they are known, placed in a 

freezer at the National History Museum. Because 

of an unreliable supply of electricity, Dr Cabral 

decided that 10 frozen pups should accompany 

Hans Fricke to Germany, 10 should accompany 

Prof Bruton to the JLB Smith Institute, and 6 

should remain in Maputo to be preserved in 

A 348 mm foetus (pup) found inside the female 

formalin. The curated juveniles will be made Mozambique coelacanth, and almost ready to be born 

available to coelacanth researchers worldwide for 

study and much will be learnt from this single fortuitous catch. 

Where the coelacanth lives 

The Mozambique coelacanth is, with the 1938 Chalumna specimen, only the second to be recorded from the 

shore of the African mainland. Until recently all other specimens have been taken at Grand Comoro and 

Anjouan Island in the Comoro Islands. The East London fish was probably helped on its 2000 km journey by 

the strong southwesterly currents of the Mozambique Channel. The Mozambique fish is also likely to be stray 

from the Comoran population. 

133 cm coelacanth caught off Anakaò Madagascar 

Photo: courtesy Domique Couttin 

On August 5th, 1995 a 32 kg coelacanth was caught in 

a net set at a depth of 140-150 m off the village of 

Anakao’ about 30 km south of Toliara (Tule’ar) on the 

southwest coast of Madagascar. The bottom off 

Anakao’ is mostly sand and of low relief (the shark 

nets are not set in rocky area s, as they would likely 

be snagged on the rocks and lost), and the 200 m 

depth contour is located about 10 km from shore. 

Previously sharks were caught regularly off Anakao’ and St.Augustin Bay with hook and line in depths of 

150-250 m. The deep-set shark nets, which were introduced some two years ago, proved to be more 

productive than hook and line fishing, and most fishermen have switched to this deep -netting method. 

Weather permitting, some 50 fishermen (usually working in two-man teams) are engaged every day in the 

deep-set shark net fishery off Anakao’. Since none of the local experienced fishermen had previously seen a 

coelacanth, it seems unlikely that a resident population of coelacanths occurs off this part of the Madagascar 

coast. North of Taliara, the continental shelf broadens and the 200m depth contour is located some 20 or 

more kilometers from shore. This increased distance to deep water precludes most local fishermen (without 

motorized canoes) from deep-water fishing. For most of the west coast of Madagascar (from Morondava, at 

about 20°S, to the north end of Madagascar) the continental shelf extends 50 to 100 km offshore. This broad 

expanse of shallow-water habitat would prevent local fishermen from fishing at depths frequented by 

coelacanths; consequently, although coelacanths may occur or be resident off the west coast of Madagascar, it 

will require a directed exploratory fishing effort or a survey with a research submersible to find them. 

In June 1991 Hans Fricke and Mike Bruton used the submersible, Jago, to try to discover whether coelacanths 

live off the South Africa coast. Since coelacanths need caves for shelter during the day, and the scientists 

found no large caves or overhang on the continental slope off the Chalumna River, it appears that the habitat 

is not suitable in South African waters. 

The biology of Latimeria chalumnae 

Feeding habitats 

Evidence from the prey found in the stomachs of coelacanths indicates that they are predominantly fish-eaters 



taking lanternfish (Diaphus), cardinal fish (Coranthus) eels (Iiyophis), beardfish (Polymixia), red breams, 

skates, sharks and also squid and octopus. The vertical head-down position has been found in other 

drift-feeding fishes. When the coelacanth is close enough to the prey, the mouth is quickly opened, the prey 

grasped very quickly by powerful jaws and then swallowed whole. 

Sex and growth rate 

There is no obvious external difference between male and female coelacanths. Females re more robust than 

males and grow to a greater size. Large reef-dwelling fishes such as snappers and groupers may live to thirty 

years, so it is likely that the coelacanth could live longer than that, possibly as long as forty years. 

Habitat and population size 

Latimeria normally occurs at depths of 150-700 m, with most sightings and catches between 150 and 253 m. 

During the day coelacanths retreat to caves where they can rest sheltered from currents and predators 

(sharks). There is evidence that coelacanths may return repeatedly to the same caves and that they have a 

home range. When in caves they hover in midwater, rarely touching one another. They appear to be social 

animals, and aggressive behaviour has not been observed. Where caves are rare, coelacanths are hardly ever 

found. Along the western shores of Grand Comoro the scientists found several occupied caves at depths from 

180 to 253. Since Hans Fricke’s dives off the Comoros it has become possible to estimate the size of the 

coelacanth population. The population of adults on the west coast of Grand Comoro was estimated to be about 

200. Professor Fricke has never observed juveniles, which probably live in deeper water. 

It is known whether birth rate is dependent on population size or what the predation rate on coelacanths is 

likely to be. Fricke did observe some large sharks in the habitat of the coelacanths and it is likely that large 

sharks may prey on the coelacanths. 

Reproduction 

The reproduction of Latimeria is of a type called ovoviviparous, which means that it has internal fertilization, 

and the foetuses are kept are kept inside the mother until they are large enough to look after themselves. 

Only one ovary matures (usually the right) and 19-26 enormous eggs about 9cm in diameter and 320g in 

weight develop inside it. The huge yolk of each egg supplied the nutrients necessary for the foetus to grow. 

The 26 pups found inside the female Mozambique coelacanth indicate that the fish may breed faster and 

produce more young than was previously thought. This female had been carrying around an extra 12 kg 

weight. 

An inventory of all known specimens of the coelacanth 

In 1991 a list complied by Mike Bruton and Sheila Coutouvids was published which included all known 

specimens of the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae based on a survey of the literature (scientific writings) and 

museum, aquarium and university holdings. A number was assigned to each specimen and catch and 

biological details were given where known. At least 191 coelacanths are known to have been caught since 

1938. Many specimens leave the Comoros without being properly documented. 

The Comoros and conservation of the coelacanth 

Map showing the Comoro Islands, 

home of the coelacanth 

The Comoro islands have a hot, wet tropical climate with a cool 

season from May to October and monsoon rains from November 

to March. The youngest island, Grand Comoro, is dominated by a 

huge active volcano which has erupted several times in the past 

few decades. Deep channels separate the islands from Africa and 

Madagascar and from each other. There are about 420 000 

people living on the three main islands, the majority being very 

poor. The Comorans depend on natural resources for food, 

medicines, fuel and building materials. Naturally fishing is an 

important industry; the problem is that there are too many 

people catching too few fish. Nowadays many fishermen use 

glassfibre boats powered by outboard motors or diesel engines. 

The traditional fishing craft for hundreds of years has been the 

dugout canoe hollowed from a single log of the mango, kapok, or 

other trees and stabilized with one or two outriggers, carrying up 

to two men. 

Fishermen work in difficult conditions using very simple tackle, basically a long hand line of retwisted cotton or 

nylon with a single large hook baited with a fillet of fish. Near the end of the line is a short piece of string to 

which is tied a lump of lava rock. When the line reaches the right depth the fisherman gives it a jerk to 

release the rock and the baited hook then hangs free just above the bottom, waiting for a fish to come along. 

All coelacanths caught by Comoran fishermen are a by-catch of the nighttime fishery for the oilfish Ruvettus. 

It was JLB Smith who warned 25 years ago that the unrestricted catching of coelacanths may threaten their 

survival, and he proposed that an international society should be formed to protect them. After his death in 

1987 the Coelacanth Conservation Council was founded by Prof Mike Bruton and three other ichthyologists, 



with the headquarters in Moroni, capital of the 

Comoros, the secretariat at the JLB Smith Institute. 

The fish is now on Appendix 1 of the Convention on 

International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) 

which prohibits trade in this particular species, and 

any caught should be released if they are still alive. 

Now that larger fibreglass outrigger canoes have 

been introduced into the Comoros by the European 

Economic Community, and fish aggregating devices 

are used far from shore, it is hoped that fishermen 

will concentrate on offshore open water fishing, thus 

reducing the pressure on nearshore fish populations 

and potential prey species for the coelacanth. 

Coelacanths cannot be targeted nor caught on 

demand no matter what lucrative rewards are 

offered - the history of the past 43 years confirms 

this! Threats to its future survival might arise, 

however, from commercial interests such as public 

aquariums and a special coelacanth fishery for 

museums. 

A reference guide to the 

Coelacanth 

Map showing the areas where the coelacanth has been 

caught: 1) mouth of the Chalumna River; 2) off the 

Mozambique coast; 3) Grand Comoro; 4) Anjouan; 5) 

Madagascar 

Bruton M.N. 1989. The living coelacanth fifty years later. Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Africa, 47 (1): 19-28. 

Bruton M.N.1990. South African scientists conserve marine resources in the Comoros. Ichthos No.26: 8-9 

Bruton M.N. 1992. Archimedes, Special Marine Issue 34:(3): 57. (Available from P.O. Box 1758, Pretoria 

0001, and from ICHTHOS.) 

Bruton M.N. & R.E. Stobbs. 1991. The ecology and conservation of the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae. 

Environ. Biol. Fishes 32: 313-339 

Forey P.L. 1988. Golden jubilee for the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae. Nature 336: 727-732 

Fricke H. 1988. Coelacanth: the fish that time forgot. National Geographic 173:824-838. (Highly 

recommended, contains colour photos of the living fish) 

Greenwood P.H.1989. Fifty years a “living fossil”- the coelacanth fish Latimeria chalumnae. Bilogist36 (1): 

15-19 

Greenwood P.H. 1993. Latimeria chalumnae - The Living Coelananth. J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology. 

Heemstra P.C. 1992. Conservation in the Comoros. Ichthos 34:1-2. 

Heemstra P.C. & L.J.V. Compagno. 1989. Uterine cannibalism and placental viviparity in the coelacanth? A 

skeptical view. S.A. Journal Science 85:485-486. 

Heemstra P.C. & P.H. Greenwood. 1992. New observations on the visceral anatomy of the late-term fetuses of 

the living coelacanth fish and the oophany controversy. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 249: 49-55 

Schauer J. 1992. The privacy of a living fossil: the coelacanth off Grande Comore. Underwater 19:31-33. 

(Obtainable from Ihlane Publications, P.O. Box 35100, Northway 4056. Include beautiful photographs) 

Smith M.M. & P.C. Heemstra. 1991. Smith’s Sea Fishes. Revised edition. Southern Book Publishers. See pages 

151-153. 

Smith J.L.B. 1956. Old Fourlegs. The story of the coelacanth. Longman Green & Co.,London, 264pp. ( This 

book is out of print but obtainable in many libraries ) 

Thompson K.S. 1991. The story of the coelacanth. WW Norton, New York, 252 pp.

The Coelacanth - South African Coastal Information Centre

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