TIS students Nina and Jenita
with the critically endangered Coelacanth
|
On the morning of Monday 23 August, the IUCN
Tanga Costal Zone Conservation and Development Programme Office received a
phone call from the District Fisheries Officer saying that fishermen in
Kigombe, Muheza District had caught some strange fish. Mr Hassan Kalombo,
Muheza Senior Fisheries Officer and Dr Eric Verheij, the IUCN Technical
Advisor for the Tanga Programme, went to Kigombe to check the reports. Much
to the experts’ astonishment and delight, they were showed two complete
specimens of Latimera chalumnae, commonly known as the Coelacanth,
a Critically Endangered fish found in the Indo-West Pacific. According to
the fishermen, the fish were caught in a shark net in about 70 meter deep
water off the coast of Kigombe , Tanga Region , Tanzania . “This is the
fourth such find on the Eastern Africa mainland coast since the Coelacanths
were first discovered from very deep water off the coast of South Africa
many decades ago,” says Dr Verheij. “It shows that we still know very little
about the magnificent diversity of species found in the Indian Ocean and
where exactly are the areas that are critical to preserve it.”
(report taken from IUCN website
www.iucn.org )
Below: TIS students with
the living fossil |
