In 1998, further discoveries were made near the eastern Indonesian Island of Sulawesi. Coelacanths are closely related to the first fish that came ashore to live on land about 360 million years ago. Coelacanths rarely swim at depths of less than 200m and many live more than 600m below the surface of the water. They attain an average lenght of 1.5m and a weight of more than 45kg, although larger specimens have been reported. Their bodies are covered in sharp, serrated scales.
Coelacanths feed on smaller fish.
Femailes give birth to live young. The latest discovery of six Coelacanth was made off Sodwana Bay near St Lucia, at the end of November 2000. The Director of the East London Museum, who alerted the world to the discovery in 1938, Miss Marjorie Courtney-Latimer. The first living Coelacanth was discovered off the east coast of South Africa, at the mouth of the Chalumna River, a few days before Christmas in 1938. The fish was caught in a shark gill net by Captain Goosen and his crew, who had no idea of the significance of their find, but still thought the fish bizarre enough to alert the local museum in the small South African town of East London.