It may have hidden in the ocean for millions of years, but life today poses numerous challenges for the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (), the “living fossil” fish that was famously rediscovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938. The few areas in which the fish still swim face destruction from new port construction while the coelacanths themselves risk being caught up in fishing nets intended for sharks. Even climate change poses a new risk for the species.
The coelacanth already has a few protections in place—trade is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, for example—but now one more safeguard may soon be available. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposed this week that coelacanths be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The proposal wouldn’t cover all coelacanths. Instead it would only add protection for the fish that live off the coast of Tanzania, where a faces the greatest threats. The populations that live near the Comoro Islands and South Africa would not gain additional protection, nor would the separate coelacanth species that lives in Indonesian waters.
According to data collected by the NMFS, the coelacanths living in the waters around the Comoro Islands and South Africa have an abundance of deepwater caves that help to keep them safe. Tanzania is a different story. The water there lacks caves; instead it has rocky terraces in somewhat shallower locations than in the other two sites. According to information presented in the this week, this leaves the Tanzanian coelacanths less protected. At least 19 of the two-meter-long fish have been accidentally caught in fishermen’s nets around Tanzania’s coral reefs in the past decade.
No comments:
Post a Comment