A hitherto unknown population of coelacanths may exist off the coast of South
Africa, far from the Comoros Islands where most of the creatures have been
found.
In October and November last year, divers saw and filmed coelacanths off
Sodwana Bay on the north-east coast of South Africa, 104 metres down in a
canyon. The sighting suggests there is a viable population there, says Phillip
Heemstra of the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology in Grahamstown in the latest
issue of the South African Journal of Science (vol 96, p 567). 鈥淭he
discovery is good news for the conservation of coelacanths,鈥� he says.
He told New 杏吧原创 that because the divers filmed a juvenile as
well as two adults, it is unlikely that the fish were strays from the Comoros
population. In addition, coelacanths have an unusually low metabolism and move
very slowly, he says. And studies carried out over a 10-year period in the
Comoros by Hans Fricke of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology in
Seewiesen, Germany, have shown that many coelacanths tend to remain in one
area.
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The first coelacanth ever found alive was caught by fishermen in 1938,
hundreds of kilometres south of Sodwana. More recently, individuals have been
caught far to the north, near Mozambique and Madagascar, but they were assumed
to have strayed from the Comoros.
Heemstra says the latest sighting suggests that coelacanths are more
widespread than previously thought. Fish living in undersea canyons would be
safe from trawlers鈥� nets and too deep to be spotted by most divers. 鈥淭here could
be populations in several places along the east African coast,鈥� he
speculates.
Fricke is wary of such claims, however. 鈥淵ou need the proof that they
reproduce. This proof does not exist,鈥� he says. To resolve the question,
Heemstra is trying to raise money for an expedition to tag the Sodwana
coelacanths and compare their DNA with the Comoros fish.
Another population was discovered off Indonesia in 1997, and controversy
continues over whether these coelacanths belong to a separate species.
