The story of a Coelacanth, a man, and Featherbed Nature Reserve…. (and it is not a fish story!)

A quick internet search tells us that Coelacanths, are from the order Coelacanthiformes, (an ancient group of lobe-finned fish, also known as Sarcopterygii), and in the class Actinistia. In layman’s terms, they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (including amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) than to ray-finned fish. 

Photocredit: Photo via https://www.goodfreephotos.co

The oldest known coelacanth fossils are over 410 million years old, and they were thought to have become extinct around 66 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous. That all changed when Coelacanths were discovered living off the east coast of South Africa in 1938, and this is where our story begins.

In December 1938, a fisherman found an unusual-looking fish among his catch. He contacted Marjorie Courtney-Latimer, curator of the East London Museum, and asked whether she wanted to take a look at the strange-looking fish. She, in turn, contacted a Rhodes University ichthyologist (a marine biologist who studies different fish species), J.L.B. Smith, sending him drawings of the fish, and asking him to identify it. He confirmed the fish's importance with a famous telegram: "Most Important. Preserve Skeleton and Gills = Fish Described.”When Smith finally saw the remains of the fish, in February 1939, he confirmed that it was indeed a coelacanth, and named it Latimeria chalumnae (after Majorie).

Its discovery 66 million years after its supposed extinction makes the coelacanth the best-known example of a “Lazarus taxon”, an evolutionary line that was thought to be extinct and are rediscovered much later.

Smith had to find another specimen, in order to zoologically document the coelacanth. He distributed thousands of leaflets along the east coast of Africa, offering a reward to any fisherman who caught one. He had to wait until 24 December 1952 to finally get word that a coelacanth had been caught in the Comoros Islands. The story goes that unable to find anyone prepared to fly him to the Comoros to retrieve the fish, Smith phoned the Prime Minister, Dr. D.F. Malan, who contacted the Minister of Defence with instructions that the South African Air Force sends a SAAF Dakota to collect the preserved fish for study at Grahamstown. The second coelacanth was successfully retrieved on 29 December 1952. Between 1938 and 1975, 84 specimens were caught and recorded. 

Photocredit: Mail & Guardian 

Smith and his wife Margaret jointly authored the popular Sea Fishes of Southern Africa, which was first published in 1949, followed by other writings until 1968. After Smith’s death in 1968, the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology (now the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity) was established by Rhodes University. Margaret Smith was appointed as the first Director.

In 1956, using the proceeds of the sale of his book Old Fourlegs (about the rediscovery of the coelacanth), J.L.B. Smith bought the western Head at Knysna. Rumour has it that his intention was to preserve his favourite fishing spot. He also bought Featherbed Bay. Featherbed derived its name from sailors who cast anchor into the tranquil bay waters to enjoy what felt like “sleeping on a feather bed” after passing the Bar. After Smith's death in 1968, his son William Smith (born 25 June 1939), a South African science and mathematics teacher inherited and later extended the Featherbed Nature Reserve, which was proclaimed a private Nature Reserve in 1958.

While rebuilding the after the big fires, some of J.L.B. Smith’s fishing gear was refurbished into wall art.  

Read for about coelacanths: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/facts/coelacanths and https://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-09-coelacanth-research-gets-a-leg-up/

Read more about JLB Smith: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0038-23532019000100003