The fish out of time - Coelacanth Resue Mission http://www.dinofish.com/
In 1938, workers on a South African fishing trawler caught a fish that they didn’t recognise - an unknown monster like nothing they had seen before. It was later identified as a member of a group of species thought to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. This site is dedicated to that fish: one of the world’s rarest and most mysterious animals, the coelacanth (pronounced ‘see-la-kanth’.)
Since it’s initial discovery, there are still many questions to be answered about the coelacanth’s secretive lifestyle and bizarre behaviour. How many coelacanths are actually left? Where do they spend their time? What is the whole evolutionary story? And why do they sometimes appear to stand on their heads?
Sometimes referred to as ‘living fossils,’ coelacanths appear to have remained unchanged for millions of years - they act like a window into the past and this site lets you see them close-up. The downloadable movies, older black-and-white as well as more modern photos, animations and diagrams have to be seen to be believed. And if you think it looks strange, you should see it in motion - try the virtual swimming coelacanth section.
But, though they’ve survived untouched all this time, coelacanths are in danger of disappearing for good. Amongt other things, research and conservation efforts are focussing on how to prevent their unnecessary deaths due to fishing - if they
are accidentally caught and brought up to the surface from their normal depth of around 600ft, they will die unless quickly taken back down. You can read about the ingenious ‘Deep Release T-shirts’, and if, having read the background, seen the pictures, and had a good think, you can come up with any more clever ideas, the Coelacanth Resue Mission really does want to hear from you.
Richard Northover
Info content *** Readability ** Appearance *** User-friendliness *** Kids ** Plugins needed Realplayer