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Coastweek - - A RARE 'Coelocanth' fish recently caught off Malindi.

MALINDI FISHERMAN LAND RARE
'COELOCANTH' SPECIE OFF KENYA

Coastweek - TWO VIEWS of the 'Coelocanth' fish (left) the leg like fin and (right) the large scales and the front right fin.

ancient species WAS thought extinct

Coastweek - - WHAT IS BELIEVED to be a rare 'Coelocanth' fish has been brought to Mombasa by fishermen who caught this unusual specimen while fishing off Malindi. 

The remains of the fish weigh 70 kilogrammes and it measures one metre thirty centimeters in length from tail to mouth. 

Until 1938, when a live specimen was caught, this ancient species was thought to have been extinct for about 70,000,000 years. 

Fossil 'coelacanths' up to about 350,000,000 years have been found in Europe and North America.

Living 'coelacanths' have been found in waters off the East Coast of Africa, South Africa, Indonesia and Hong Kong. 

The fish is blue-gray and sometimes brown in colour, with large scales and small leglike fins. 

A specimen caught in 1952 weighed 45 kilogrammes and measured one meter fifty centimeters. 

The 'coelacanth' specie name is Latimeria chalumnae.

Coastweek - - 'Coelocanth' brought to Durban, South Africa, 1938.

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