From Reuters, by way of Yahoo! News: “Fishermen in Zanzibar have caught a coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct when it disappeared from fossil records 80 million years ago, an official said on Sunday.”

I remember the original story from when I was back in school. Scientists had thought the coelacanth were extinct, until one was caught off the coast of South Africa.

But, the natives weren’t unfamiliar with it. It was a fish they occasionally caught by mistake. Not sure whether they ate them or tossed them back. Wikipedia describes them as being “nearly inedible.” So, I guess you can eat it, but maybe you wouldn’t really want to do so.

They themselves eat a variety of other fish and ocean life, including small sharks. But, I’d bet they’d never eat a Great White Hunter!

Anyway, it was interesting to read the story of a more modern day catch, which confirms they are still out there.

I found out about this story by way of yesterday’s A Blog that Lies post on “Fisherman Catches Ancient Fish.”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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