Extinction is not an Option!
Created | Updated Jan 11, 2006
There are perhaps less than 1000 live coelacanths left in the world. They've been around an estimated 400 million years and live at a depth of 100 to 300 metres. There are known colonies in East Africa and the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean.
In September 2003 one was caught off the coast of Tanzania suggesting another permanent coelacanth location in the world. Good news for a rare fish. But new Japanese deep trawling methods of catching edible fish are accidentally netting the few remaining coelacanth off the coast of Tanzania, or frightening them to come closer to the surface, where they are unable to survive due to their delicate metabolism. It's possible that about 25 have died in the last year although some 40% are still alive when they get caught in the nets and could be rescued, with skill.
There is a local coelacanth conservation project but it doesn't seem to be working. Tanzanian fishermen might have been offered rewards for catching them although this is thought to have been stopped. They need Deep Sea Release kits (see http://www.dinofish.com) and education about conservation, but they can't see the significance. What's the use of a huge fish that you can neither eat nor sell?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,16937,1681745,00.html?gusrc=rss
In September 2003 one was caught off the coast of Tanzania suggesting another permanent coelacanth location in the world. Good news for a rare fish. But new Japanese deep trawling methods of catching edible fish are accidentally netting the few remaining coelacanth off the coast of Tanzania, or frightening them to come closer to the surface, where they are unable to survive due to their delicate metabolism. It's possible that about 25 have died in the last year although some 40% are still alive when they get caught in the nets and could be rescued, with skill.
There is a local coelacanth conservation project but it doesn't seem to be working. Tanzanian fishermen might have been offered rewards for catching them although this is thought to have been stopped. They need Deep Sea Release kits (see http://www.dinofish.com) and education about conservation, but they can't see the significance. What's the use of a huge fish that you can neither eat nor sell?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,16937,1681745,00.html?gusrc=rss
