Image shows actual swimming motion.

Conservation Organizations

The Explorers Club

The Explorers Club's purpose is for the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, and the preservation of wildlife.

Coelacanth Rescue Mission

The Coelacanth Rescue Mission is an outgrowth of several coelacanth expeditions to the Comoro Islands originated in the 1980's. Their mission is to help reduce coelacanth fatalities by distributing a Deep Release Kit to the local fishermen who accidentally catch about nine of the fish each year. (Third Wave Media)

Fun Facts

Nickname: "Old Four Legs" (CITES)

It is a "living fossil."

Fossils of ancient coelacanths have been found on every continent except Antarctica (Third Wave Media).

Scientists had known coelacanths only in fossils up to 400 million years old. Then in 1938 they discovered the ancient fish were still living off the coast of Africa (ABC News).

A new population of coelacanths was located in 1998 off the coast of Indonesia (ABC News).

The eyes are well developed, with reflecting cells called tapita to enhance night vision (Third Wave Media).

Fish tagged with sonic devices were found to leave the caves at the same time late each afternoon (Third Wave Media).

Coelacanths caught by local fisherman live for ten or so hours on the surface of the ocean. The cause of mortality is believed to be a combination of capture stress and over heating resulting in asphyxiation (surface waters are 20 degrees F warmer than where the coelacanth lives.)

If you love coelacanths like us, visit http://www.dinofish.com to purchase T-shirts and other memorabilia from the coelashop.

Latimeria chalumnae

Coelacanths

Introduction

Latimeria chalumnae is a lobed-finned fish that was thought to be extinct for over 60 million years. An earlier extinct form has been thought to have been the ancestor of modern amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. This species live in the steep slopes of volcanic islands in the Indian Ocean at depths greater than 150 meters (Schauer). It is 5 feet in length, weighs approximately 80 kg, has color ranging from brown to dark blue, and body patterns are unique to the individual. Coelacanths, opportunistic predators, feed by standing on their head, swim backwards, and belly-up using their rosteral gland to locate their prey. Then it sucks its food into its hinged jaws. Reproductivly, they are ovoviparous (give birth to live young), with females developing egss in the oviduct (Third Wave Media). Adults locate each other for breeding with electroreceptive rosteral organs.

Conservation Status

On the CITES list, coelacanths are threatened with extinction and specimens of the species are only permitted to be traded under exceptional circumstances.

The 2000 IUCN has Red Listed the coelacanths due to the fact that there are less than 250 mature individuals and that they are all part of a single subpopulation.

Conservation Issues

Coelocanths are critically endangered because an expected 80% reduction to be met within the next 10 years due to a decline in area of occupancy, extent of occurence, and/or quality of habitat and actual or potential levels of exploitation (IUCN). From limited surveys, a rough estimate of the population in 1991 was 650 coelacanths. By 1994, there was a 32% decline, resulting in numbers of 450. 1995 showed fewer than 300 fish. This led to the listing of an endangered species in 1996. It has since been moved to a critically endangered species in 2000 (Jensen). Very little actual data and research can be done about this species because of the physical limitations and equipment availability.

Literature Cited

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. 2000 July 19. http://www.cites.org/eng/append/I&II_0700.shtml . Accessed 2001 November 12.

Icthyology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Coelacanths from Sulawesi. http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/tropical/JSA/coel.htm . Accessed 2001 November 12.

Jensen, Mari N. ABC News and Starwave Corporation. Ancient Fish in Decline. 1999.
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/dailynews/fish980819.html . Accessed 2001 October 29.

Schauer, Jurgen and Hans Fricke. Research Group Fricke. The Biology of the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae. http://ss20.mpi-seewiesen.mpg.de/~hissmann/coela.html . Accessed 2001 October 29.

Street, Robin. University of Michigan Department of Zoology.1997. Latimeria chalumnae.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/latimeria/l._chalumnae$narrative.html
Accessed 2001 October 29.

Third Wave Media Inc. 2000. The Fish Out of Time
URL: http://www.dinofish.com . Accessed 2001 October 29.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN). 2000. http://www.redlist.org/search/details.php?species=11375 . Accessed 2001 November 12.

*All images are courtesy of J. Hamlin from www.dinofish.com

Authors: Michael T. Faile, Timothy L. Heinke, & James D. Rose
Created: October 30, 2001/Last Revised: November 15, 2001

Picture of first coelacanth discovered (1938).

Earlham College· Biology Department · Biology 26: Biological Diversity