Durban - Thirteen years after the stunning discovery of several marine “dinosaurs” off the KwaZulu-Natal coast, scientists are still learning new secrets about the province’s unique population of coelacanths.
A recent survey involving marine scientists from South Africa and France was unable to locate a new population in the iSimangaliso World Heritage Park – but the scientists think they have found at least three new coelacanths to add to the park’s known population of 27 in Jesser Canyon at Sodwana Bay.
The team also placed hydro-phones and low-light cameras in some of the deep underwater caves to find out whether coelacanths made any noises. This data is still being analysed.
Coelacanths are one of the most endangered animals in the world. They are sometimes known as “living fossils” because they were thought to have gone extinct about 65 million years ago.
But in 1938 the discovery of a single specimen off the coast of East London electrified the scientific world, leading to the subsequent discovery of small populations near Indonesia, the Comoros Islands and other parts of the Indian Ocean.
In 2000, Peter Timm and other South African deep-water divers found several coelacanths at a depth of just more than 100m in underwater caves off Sodwana Bay.
More recently, Timm and other deep-water divers have teamed up with French documentary maker Laurent Ballesta and scientists from the Natural History Museum in Paris.
The French scientists are working with colleagues from the South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity and the South African National Biodiversity Institute.
Andrew Zaloumis, the chief executive of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, said the latest coelacanth scientific expedition would help to guide further conservation policies in the park.
Because coelacanths have unique spotted patterns, scientists are able to identify most of the iSimangaliso fish individually.
Although divers are more manoeuvrable than remotely operated underwater submarines, the team has also been using a high-tech camera known as “the giraffe”.
A remotely operated vehicle has been used to conduct a wider search for coelacanths in other parts of the park, between Island Rock Canyon in the north and Chaka Canyon in the south.
So far, the results indicate that the fish are restricted to the Jesser Canyon.
Timm will be giving a presentation at Sodwana Bay on the weekend of September 25 to 28 about his remarkable discovery of the coelacanths 13 years ago. - The Mercury