Coelacanths are remarkable fishes - true survivours - having evolved some 400 million years ago, lived alongside the dinosaurs, and miraculously survived the mass extinction that marked the end of the dinosaurs. They remained totally unknown to almost everyone, hidden in the depths; only fishermen in a few remote locations (the Comoros and parts of Indonesia) had ever seen them before the discovery of one off East London in December 1938.

Since then, they have been found in other places in the Mozambique Channel, Indonesia and in October 2000, in Sodwana Bay, South Africa. It is this discovery that sparked this Programme.

Coelacanth in Jesser Canyon, December 2000 at about 108m.
Picture by Christo Serfontein, © South African Coelacanth Expedition 2000.

Over the coming days, we will be learning a lot about the coelacanths in the Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park, and we will endeavour to keep you updated to the best of our ability, given the difficulties inherent in web access from on board a ship! We will also be putting up content on the history and biology of the coelacanths that we know of already.

Should you have any queries, please make use of our message boards.