The man who remembers the coelacanth

	Rothman looks at the model of the first living coelacanth that was trawled off the Chalumna River near East London on 23 December 1938.

As part of the South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity's (SAIAB's) exhibition at this year's SciFest Africa 2012, the Institute displayed a model of the first coelacanth caught near East London as part of its "living fossil" theme.

As Ernest Rothman was walking about at the Settlers' Monument on the opening day of SciFest, never in a million years did he think he would see on exhibition a model of the coelacanth he once saw in 1952.

Rothman remembers being a young school boy at Graeme College when the fish was brought to town by James Leonard Brierley (better known as JLB) Smith. "I remember being in Matric when the fish was on exhibition at the City Hall and I have followed the story of the coelacanth ever since," he said.

The first living coelacanth was trawled off the Chalumna River near East London on 23 December 1938. On Christmas Eve 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer sent a sketch of an odd fish to JLB Smith for identification. Smith later confirmed this fish to be the first specimen of the "living" coelacanth. The original specimen (also called the 'type' specimen) can be seen at the East London Museum.

The coelacanth was thought to have been extinct for over 65 million years. JLB named the species Latimeria chalumna - after Marjorie who found the specimen and the Chalumna River near the mouth of which it was found.

Old Fourlegs

Fourteen years later, JLB Smith embarked on a daring flight in a South African Air Force Dakota aircraft, authorised by the Prime Minister of South Africa, to fetch the second specimen of the coelacanth which was captured on the Comoro Islands in 1952. He later published the book Old Fourlegs - The Story of the Coelacanth, which was translated into seven other languages.

He also published the first Ichthyological Bulletin of the Department of Ichthyology at Rhodes University. This bulletin later continued under the name Ichthyology Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology and was recently renamed Smithiana to commemorate the memory of JLB and that of his wife Margaret and their legacy of discovery in ichthyology.

According to Rothman, the capture of the coelacanth really put Grahamstown on the map. "Every time I see an image of the coelacanth I think of JLB Smith because he is generally thought of as the original finder of the coelacanth," Rothman added.