FINDING OLD FOUR LEGS

Peter Timm, who ran Triton Divers for more than 20 years, helped to solve a mystery surrounding Africa’s most famous fossil fish. Back in 2000, as the burly diver from the Free State was ascending from a 104-metre technical dive at Jesser Canyon off Sodwana, he spotted a curious fish with large and unusual fins (hence the nickname Old Four Legs).

He was sure it was a coelacanth but didn’t have a camera to capture the sighting. Although the coelacanth had been recorded by ichthyologist JLB Smith in 1938 as a living specimen (of a fish that existed 400 million years ago), nobody had ever seen one while scuba diving.

Peter launched follow-up expeditions, resulting in many more successful sightings. In 2013 alone, 19 of these prehistoric fish were seen, including a giant more than two metres long. Diving at these depths is hazardous and can have tragic consequences. Searching for coelacanths off Sodwana has cost one diver his life.

Tragically, on a searchand-rescue mission off the coast of Umkomaas in 2014, Peter and his dive partner suffered decompression sickness and died. Peter’s legend lives on around the fires at Triton and other Sodwana lodges.