Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Indonesian Guy Catches Coelacanth...

...which is a fish from the dinosaur period, occasionally caught in the Indian Ocean.

via CNN.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- An Indonesian angler caught a fish once thought to have disappeared along with the dinosaurs and held it in a quarantined pool until it died 17 hours later, a biologist said Sunday.

The coelacanth fish was thought to have become extinct 65 million years ago until one was found in 1938 off Africa's coast. The discovery of the so-called "living fossil" ignited worldwide interest.


I had to go to Wikipedia for the question I really wanted an answer to, which is not mentioned in the news article: are they good to eat? Wikipedia says:

A worldwide search was launched for more coelacanths, with a reward of 100 British pounds, a very substantial sum to the average South African fisherman of the time. Fourteen years later, one specimen was found in the Comoros, but the fish was no stranger to the locals -- in the port of Mutsamudu on the Comorian island of Anjouap, the Comorians were puzzled to be so rewarded for a gombessa or mame, an inferior, nearly inedible fish that their fishermen occasionally caught by mistake.

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