Scientists hunt for coelacanths off Sodwana Bay

A TEAM of marine scientists and film-makers hope to pull off a remarkable coup over the next few days as they hunt for more “dinosaurs of the deep” in underwater canyons off Sodwana Bay in KwaZulu-Natal.

The unique creature they hope to find and film is the coelacanth‚ the prehistoric fish species thought to have been extinct for 65 million years until a single small specimen was found on the deck of a fishing vessel near East London in 1938.

The discovery led to the subsequent capture and examination of a number of coelacanths off the coast of East Africa and Indonesia‚ but no living specimens were found in South Africa until 18 years ago‚ when six were found by deep-water divers in the Jesser and Wright canyons off the coast off Sodwana Bay.

Since that initial discovery in 2000‚ the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP) has confirmed the presence of at least 32 in the area.

Dr Angus Paterson‚ managing director of the SA Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity‚ said: “We are very proud to have been involved in the research around cataloguing the 32 known coelacanths and are excited about the potential of finding others off Sodwana during this cruise.”

The filming off Sodwana will form part of the first episode of a documentary series entitled Our Oceans:

Dinosaurs in the Deep by the Off the Fence wildlife film production company.

The series will examine a wide range of threats to the world’s oceans. —