COELOCANTH - a living fossil and other Mozambique Off The Beaten Path Tips

A COELOCANTH about 1.5 m (5 feet) lon and weighing 57 kg (126 lbs). was caught by fishermen on the vessel Nerine trawling off the mouth of the Chalumna River in 1938 off the COMORES in the Mocambique Channel.

Latimeria chalumnae the living fossil a.k.a. the COELOCANTH first appeared in the fossil record about 360 million years ago, was thought to have become extinct about eighty million years ago.

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a curator at the East London Museum, could not identify the fish. She sent a sketch to J. L. B. Smith at Rhodes University in South Africa who identified the fish as a coelacanth.
"The discovery of a population of coelacanths off Sodwana Bay is a stunning reminder of how exciting science is and of how little we know about our own backyard when it comes to the marine environment along our coast. The episode is another fine example of the interdependence of science and the interested public - and that the public will only be interested if they are properly informed in the first place," says Dr Paul Skelton, Director of the JLBSI. According to Skelton, the discovery has a special significance for the JLBSI in the light of their expertise, the linkages and their obligation to enhancing marine conservation through a well-planned research effort on the coelacanths at Sodwana. "We are excited and looking forward to further discoveries about the African coelacanths," he says.

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Website: http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/coelacanth.htm ma
Other Contact: http://www.dinofish.com/

One of the largest man-made lakes in Africa where ECO TRAVEL in a solid man made boat without industrial aid is possible.

CAHORA BASSA ( is apparently derived from the Chewa term 'Kebrabassa' ), which means 'the end of work'.
If you enlarge map below, the Man made dam wall is @ SONGA

http://www.radiobridge.org/moz/corba.jpg gives one an inetresting EOSAT jpeg image where the red area outlining the lake is dense vegetation growing along the shore.
The west end of the lake is deeper and carries less sediment than the eastern end, therefore the west end is darker blue.

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when ?
i've forgotten, but who flew,
it was Jose, a friend who later moved to France, then suddenly passed away - RIP - mon ami !
It was Jose who piloted a single engined Cessna or ???
we flew over Lourenco Marques, across the bay over Inhaca Island,
then the thrill to see the hundreds of elephants moving slowly between the huge trees of typically African environment.

where are the elephants now, the victims of hunters in both peace and wartimes have reduced their numbers to about 180 in 1998 according to The Deibi project, a co-operation between Groningen University in Holland and Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, started in 1991.

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Website: http://home.hetnet.nl/~fredenpat/Default.htm