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COELOCANTH

Rare Fish Caught Off Malindi

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MALINDI 'COELOCANTH' CATCH IS
CAUSE FOR SCIENTIFIC EXCITEMENT

Coastweek - - Coelocanth fish landed off Malindi, Kenya North Coast.

I am astonished ! I cannot believe it !

Coastweek - - THE RARE and ancient coelocanth fish caught by a trawler off Malindi has been donated to the Musuems of Kenya for further study and research.

The exclusive Coastweek report of this unique find drew considerable interest and response on the internet.

A senior official with Sweden's Marine Fisheries Research Station in Lysekil, admitted:

"I am astonished ! I cannot believe it, it is so great to see this fish, and that it is caught again !

"I have several French scientists working with me at present.

"As we remember, a few specimens were caught close to Madagascar some years ago, and that was a real sensation.

"We are all extremely surprised that it has now happened again and outside Kenya's coast.

"These images should be sent to all media worldwide.

"I will use them in my teaching next week."

A leading Marine Biologist in Germany commented:

"This is extremely interesting ! You might have heard about the several Coelocanth catches outside the Comores 1991 Mozambique, four specimens off S.W. Madagascar) and the discovery of coelocanths in an deep canyon off Sodwana Bay at South Africa's northeast coast.

"Hans Fricke has just landed in Port Elizabeth for discussing a planned expedition for the investigation of the South African coelocanth population to be launched in April 2002.

"Eight coelacanths have been observed by trimix deep water divers at a depth of 100 m. at the St. Lucia Marine park, a world heritage site.

"We still believe that these specimens and local aggregations or maybe also populations are strays from the Comoros.

"I just had a quick look onto the map and this is getting really puzzling now.

"If the fish caught by fishermen off Malindi was indeed a coelocanth the strange thing is that Malindi lies far north from the Comoros.

"The finds off Mozambique, Madagascar and South Africa can be explained by the strong Agalas current coming from the Comoros and heading south.

"So (it would seem) ... it is almost impossible that a large coelocanth would drift from the Comoros to the Kenyan coast..