Indonesian Fisherman Nets Ancient Fish

[mrmoshe]

Indonesian fisherman nets ancient fish

AN Indonesian fisherman has caught a coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct at the time of the dinosaurs.

Yustinus Lahama and his son caught the fish on Saturday in the sea off North Sulawesi province and kept it at their house for an hour, said Grevo Gerung, a professor at the fisheries faculty at the Sam Ratulangi University.

After being told by neighbours it was a rare fish he took it back to the sea and kept it in a quarantine pool for about 17 hours before it died.

"If kept outside their habitat (60m down), the fish can only live for two hours. But this fish lived for about 17 hours," Professor Gerung said.

"We will look into why it had lived that long," he said.

The fish was 131cm long and weighed 51kg, he said.

In 1998, fishermen a caught another coelacanth in a deep-water shark net off northern Sulawesi.

That catch came 60 years after a member of the species was rediscovered on the east coast of South Africa.

Coelacanths are known from the fossil records dating back more than 360 million years, according to the Australian Museum fish website.

Before 1938 they were believed to have become extinct about 80 million years ago, when they disappeared from the fossil record, it said.

Coelacanths are the only living animals to have a fully functional intercranial joint, which is a division separating the ear and brain from the nasal organs and eye.

[arpie]

Where's the photo??? Bet it was uuuuugly!

Roberta

[mrmoshe]

Where's the photo??? Bet it was uuuuugly!

Roberta

Can't find a pic of THIS coelacanth, but here is a file pic of one of the beasties;

Pete

[arpie]

You are a legend, Pete!! Where do you get all these precious items??? Do you have a permanent link to anything with 'fish' in it???

Cheers

Roberta

PS The weed is still looking pretty good - even the stuff I thought looked 'off' will still catch fish! Just a matter of for how much longer???

[mrmoshe]

You are a legend, Pete!! Where do you get all these precious items??? Do you have a permanent link to anything with 'fish' in it???

Cheers

Roberta

PS The weed is still looking pretty good - even the stuff I thought looked 'off' will still catch fish! Just a matter of for how much longer???

Shhhh...secret news finder!! LOL

It helps being in the media business too.

BTW..It looks like I won't be making the social after all...I will be working that weekend but will make

sure the weed supply makes it up there. I'll be harvesting it on the Thursday and have it layered between wet hessian, so it should be in good shape for the weekend.

I knew it would be a 50/50 chance but the new roster came out and I'm on it for that weekend. Dammit!!

So, sorry, I won't be there but will be thinking of you all latching onto thumper blackies all weekend.

Cheers,

Pete.