Living Fossil Fish In Indonesian Waters

August 17, 2004

Release from: Tan Cheng Li
The Star Online (Malaysia)

For years, the Bunaken Marine Park in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, was ravaged by destructive fishing methods and pollution. But the discovery of a coelacanth – a survivor from the age of dinosaurs – stirred new interest in marine conservation and brought about a dramatic turn of events.

When a coelacanth was netted off South Africa back in 1938, it was labelled as the “greatest zoological find of the century” as until then, the fish was thought to be extinct. So when marine biologist Dr Mark V. Erdmann and his wife Arnaz Mehta spotted what looked like a coelacanth in a market in Manado, north Sulawesi, in 1997, their interests were aroused.

But doubting that they could really have stumbled upon a major discovery, Erdmann merely took photographs of the weird-looking fish and did not bag it. He was to regret that later when other scientists confirmed that it was indeed a big find; the coelacanth (pronounced see-la-kanth) has never been sighted outside the western Indian Ocean, until then.

“I missed my chance and so began my quest to get a specimen,” says Erdmann, who talked about his discovery at the Celebrate the Sea Marine Imagery Festival held at the National Science Centre in Kuala Lumpur recently. “I returned to Manado, talked to fishermen and showed them photographs of the fish taken at the market. At the back of my mind, I was dreading that I might beat J.L.B. Smith’s record of 14 years in between finds.” (Ichthyologist Smith, who described the coelacanth in 1938, only obtained a second specimen in 1952.)

Five months and hundreds of interviews later, Erdmann narrowed down his search to two fish. Deep sea handline fishermen had named the fish in his photographs as ikan sede whereas shark net fishers called it ikan raja laut. In April 1998, he moved a step closer to solving the mystery of the coelacanth. A fisherman netted the ikan sede and brought it to Erdmann, hoping to claim the 1 million rupiah reward offered – it wasn’t the coelacanth.

From then on, the search focused on the shark fishers. Their 50m-long gill nets are set in the deep sea, just 3.5m above the seabed. So the nets can incidentally trap coelacanths which dwell in moderately deep waters of between 150m and 200m. True enough, in July 1998, a shark fisher presented Erdmann with a specimen of the prized fish, netted off the island of Manado Tua inside the Bunaken Marine Park. After 10 months, the search was over.

Dino-fish

The ensuing media publicity, carrying headlines such as The Lost Tribe of Coelacanths and The Fossil Lives! triggered global excitement and interest. The discovery was of major scientific importance – it is the only coelacanth population found outside the waters of the African continent, and a possible indication that coelacanth populations are more widespread than believed. The find was voted one of the top 10 science stories of the year by Discover magazine.

Coelacanths are well known from the fossil record of 75 million to 400 million years ago. They were thought to be extinct, until the 1938 find. Since then, about 200 specimens of the Latimeria chalumnae have been caught, mostly from the Comoro Islands, north of Madagascar.

Coelacanths fascinate because of their unusual appearance and evolutionary importance. They have remained virtually unchanged morphologically for millions of years, leading some to call them “living fossils.” They are quite huge, averaging about 1.6m in length, with large, lobed fins that look more like legs. These fins earned the coelacanth the nickname “Old Four Legs.” In 1975, it was discovered that the coelacanth is a live bearer when a 1.5m mother was found to contain five young.

Together with lungfishes, coelacanths are the nearest relatives to vertebrates which took the first step on land 350 million years ago. It is this close biological link with four-legged animals that makes coelacanths an important evolutionary species.

Genetic differences warrant the Indonesian coelacanth to be considered a new species, and it was named Latimeria menadoensis. Erdmann says this species split from the L.chalumnae some five million years ago.

And thanks to all the media publicity, national pride in the coelacanth grew. The Indonesian people and government, aware of the global significance of the find, quickly accepted the responsibility of conserving the ancient fish.

Erdmann worked with the authorities to develop a national conservation strategy for the coelacanth. In early 1999, a new law was introduced, protecting the L. menadoensis from capture and trade. A video on the coelacanth was screened in villages within Bunaken every Sunday night. A book, Seli – the little lost coelacanth, carried creative coral reef conservation messages for children. The coelacanth was soon an icon, adorning everything from hats to T-shirts, posters, billboards and handicrafts.

Renewed interest

The coelacanth discovery stirred interest in marine conservation, much to the delight of Erdmann who works in Manado as marine protected area advisor of the Natural Resources Management Programme, a US-funded project to strengthen management of Indonesia’s forests and coastal resources.

Local youths began holding camping expeditions centred on protecting marine life. A group set up the Team Raja Laut to monitor daily fish catches for incidental trappings of coelacanths, dugongs, turtles and sharks. They also kept watch on turtle nesting sites and illegal fishing activities. The group eventually evolved into the Bunaken Concerned Citizen’s Forum and has become the national model for community involvement in park management.

The coelacanth find also spurred 14 dive operators to put aside business rivalry and form the North Sulawesi Watersports Association (NSWA). The group provides employment to villagers, supports local handicraft and fish product industries, offers scholarships for youths, conducts educational projects for students and monitors marine life.

“The same theme is heard over and over in South Africa as well. This smelly old fish does an amazing job of bringing diverse people together,” says Erdmann.

A new era in the management of Bunaken emerged from the growing voice of the Citizen’s Forum and the NSWA. Now, the community has a say in the running of the park as it has a one-third representation in the 15-man Park Management Advisory Board. A zoning system ensures that conservation, ecotourism and sustainable use are all accommodated within the park. Joint villager-ranger patrol teams have brought an end to damaging environmental practices such as coral mining, mangrove cutting, as well as blast and cyanide fishing.

Apart from being recognised as a model for other Indonesian protected areas to emulate, the Bunaken co-management system has also received global accolade. It was selected as the International Coral Reef Action Network’s demonstration site for marine protected area management and has also received the 2004 Tourism for Tomorrow Award and the 2004 United Nations Equator Prize (for community projects that reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity).

“Tremendous local pride generated by the coelacanth also prompted park authorities and local groups to push for a ban on shark net fishing within the park, and they got it in October 2000. While coelacanths may benefit, sharks are winners too,” says Erdmann.

Still searching

Many unanswered questions remain about coelacanths. Scientists still do not know the size of the Indonesian population, whether it is a small relic population, or part of a larger one. And are there other coelacanth populations elsewhere in the world? Their life spans and reproductive behaviour also remain unknown.

And so, the search for more coelacanth specimens in Indonesia continues, but with little success. Posters have been distributed all over areas of Indonesia where coelacanths have been reported or are likely to occur. In November 1999, an expedition using a submersible vehicle Jago spotted two fish in Sulawesi. Erdmann says trimix diving, which uses a mix of gases so divers could dive deeper and longer, would be considered as it was successful in locating coelacanths off South Africa.

Searching just as hard for coelacanths are illegal collectors for Japanese aquariums. There are four such “expeditions” which authorities know of. To enlist the help of fishermen, these collectors donated boats and nets but fortunately, the locals reported them to the police and park managers instead.

The coelacanth has certainly been a catalyst for numerous conservation efforts in Sulawesi but Erdmann hopes it can do one more: prompt more research into what he calls the “twilight zone,” the area of the ocean found between coral reefs and the ocean floor, where coelacanths live.

“We know more about the deep ocean floor than we do about the twilight zone, despite its relatively much higher biodiversity.”