At Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman reports that an Indonesian coelacanth has been caught on film west Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. A darling of cryptozoologists everywhere, the coelacanth was thought to have been extinct for the last 65 million years but was “rediscovered” in 1938. This one was filmed at a depth of 170m using a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), essentially an underwater robot, operated by a team from Aquamarine Fukushima. The video isn’t public yet, but I look forward to it! Link
UPDATE: Loren updated his post with more context about why this news is so significant, something I missed when making my original post:
The African species (the beautiful blue ones) was re-discovered in 1938, and for decades people thought that’s all there was. In the 1990s, they were finally filmed live.
But then in 1998, to the surprise of zoologists and ichthyologists worldwide, 6000 miles away, a whole new and different species (they are the beautiful brownish variety) of coelacanth were discovered off Indonesia. They have never been filmed alive in the wild. Until now. That’s why this is such a remarkable piece of news.
UPDATE: At Cryptomundo, the story continues to unfold:
* Apparently, a German team previously videotaped a coelacanth in its Indonesian habitat in 1999. This new video is the first since then.
* Two more coelacanths were seen yesterday.
* And, last but not least, here’s a still from the May 30, 2006 video of this dark blue beauty!
