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THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST
COELOCANTH SEEN IN MALINDI ?

appearance gave him a shock

Coastweek - - Do your Coastweek readers know that it is (maybe) not the first time that a coelacanth has appeared in Kenyan waters ?

Here is a text that you can find in the book "Old Fourlegs - The story of the Coelacanth" by J.L.B. Smith.

I have that book in my large coelacanth collection.

In his book "Old Fourlegs - The story of the Coelacanth", published 1956 by Longmans, Green & Co London, J.L.B. Smith wrote:

"Before we left for Mozambique [where a Mozambique native had told about the coelacanth ? fish he got at Bazaruto] I received a letter, dated the 3rd August 1953, from G.F. Cartwright of Salisbury (now Harare), Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

"He wrote to say that he had been goggle-fishing at Malindi in October and November 1952, and that he had seen us at work there at the close of our stay.

"Later when out over deep water on a reef one day, equipped and armed with spear-gun, he suddenly saw not far below him a large fish whose appearance gave him a shock.

"It had a huge mouth and a 'baleful and ancient appearance."

To quote further: "It was a large fish, heavily built, and from 100 to 150-lbs in weight.

"It was totally unlike any fish I had seen or ever saw after-wards.

"It looked wholly evil and a thousand years old.

"It had a large eye and the most outstanding feature was the armour-plate effect of its heavy scales, scales so heavy that it was set quite apart from all other fish I saw."

Cartwright decided to try a shot, but the harpoon just glanced off the scales and the creature disappeared.

Some anglers and spear-gunners suggests that it could be a Rock Cod, but Cartwright had a large experience of diverse Rock Cods and was quite positive it was not.

After returning to Rhodesia, in some periodical Cartwright saw a photograph of the second coelacanth (caught one month later), he became convinced that he did see this fish off Malindi. Shortly afterwards he visited the Centenary Exhibition in Bulawayo, and to his satisfaction found a full size model of a Coelacanth (from the East London Museum, South Africa) on view there.

Now, Cartwright was even more convinced that he really saw a coelacanth !

J.L.B. Smith: "What did I think ?

"Well, it was clear that if the Comores was the home of the coelacanth, Malindi was much nearer and much more easily accessible in every way than East London, which one coelacanth at least had actually reached.

"Bazaruto fell in between these places, and Cartwright's ex-perience at least lent colour to the Bazaruto idea.

"Furthermore, from my wide knowledge of the fishes of the western Indian Ocean I could think of no species that fitted Cartwright's description as well as a coelacanth. Not one."

Maybe it was really a coelacanth ?

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Smith, J.L.B., "A Coelacanth in Kenyan Waters?" in: South African Angler, 1953, Vol 8 (September), p. 8,19

Smith, J.L.B., "Old Fourlegs - The story of the Coelacanth", 1956, Longmans Green & Co - London, p. 218-219

Interesting sites on the web:

(General information and bibliography)

http://www.dinofish.com

(Indonesian 'Sulawesi' Coelacanth)

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/
coelacanth/coelacanths.html

(Cryptozoologic site with coelacanth information)

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cryptozoo/coel_eng.htm

(Latest discovery of the South African Population at Sodwana Bay)

http://fishwatch.tripod.com/coelacanth/philarticle.htm

Rik Nulens, Everstraat 30 B-3680 Maaseik, Belgium.

riknulens@planetinternet.be.

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