Jago on deck photo by James Stapley

Jago (pronounced ya-go) is our little yellow submarine, operated by Jago-Team, consisting of the world famous Professor Hans Fricke, Jago's Pilot Jurgen Schauer and biologist Karen Hissmann.

Jago takes part in underwater exploration all around the world, in both fresh and salt water. Jago's primary reason for construction was the study of coelacanths in the Comoros, where the Jago-Team have been undertaking almost annual trips to study the largest known population of coelacanths. They spent a month in Indonesia searching for coelacanths and only found two - right at the end of the expedition on their way back to Jakarta; they had almost abandoned all hope of finding any when they finally stumbled across those fish.

Jago has previously visited South Africa to search for coelacanths off the Eastern Cape coastline where the first coelacanth was discovered - off the Chalumna River near East London. None were found, and until recently, it was thought that this specimen was probably a stray all the way from the Comoros; perhaps it actually only travelled from Sodwana Bay. The habitat also seemed rather unsuitable, with very few unstable caves.

Now Jago is searching the extensive canyon system off the northern Kwa-Zulu Natal coastline.

During a dive, Karen Hissmann constantly tracks the submersible's movements and keeps in contact with the crew inside the submersible. To read about Karen's job, click here.  

Jago's pilot is Jurgen Schauer. To read about his job, click here.