Scientists are racing to trace deep ocean species before they are lost, with the help of photographers who have a taste for danger.

Scientists are racing to trace deep ocean species before they are lost, with the help of photographers who have a taste for danger.

In 2010 four friends, carrying 32kg (71lb) worth of camera equipment, sunk beneath the waves of Sodwana Bay, off the east coast of South Africa. It was then that photographer, Laurent Ballesta stared directly into the eyes of a creature once thought to have died out with the dinosaurs – and took the first ever photograph of a living coelacanth.

“It’s not just a fish we thought was extinct,” says Ballesta. “It’s a masterpiece in the history of evolution.”

Venture back to the beginning of the age of the dinosaurs, and you’d find coelacanths in abundance, on every continent, living in the steamy marshes of the Triassic Period. Dating back 410 million years, the coelacanth belongs to the group of “lobe-finned” fish that left the ocean between about 390 and 360 million years ago. Its strong, fleshy fins were a precursor to the paired limbs of tetrapods, which include all land-living vertebrates – amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals and, yes, humans too. In fact, coelacanths are more closely related to tetrapods than to any other known fish species.

  • anon6789
    8•12 days ago

    Thanks for sharing this. I always get excited when I see the coelacanth pop up in the news.

    It was amazing to get to see one at the Smithsonian. It felt like seeing something that I shouldn’t be able to see, like something of this world, but not, at the same time. I can’t imagine how thrilling it would be to see them in person and to learn about them directly.

  • Devi
    5•11 days ago

    It’s a really pretty fish isn’t it? I’m used to seeing them preserved and the colour doesn’t come across.

    • @athairmor
      8•12 days ago

      Maybe you should read the article for an explanation before commenting.

    • @PassingDuchy
      3•11 days ago

      “After approaching the coelacanth to encourage it to move between two cameras positioned on a custom-made stand, the team turned on the lights. “At this depth, some think that there is no light,” says Ballesta. “There is [very] nice light. It’s tiny, it’s soft, but there is still light. So, it’s important to not use too much artificial light. It’s like driving in a car at night. If you put your lights on full, you see just in front of the car, and all the rest is dark. If you switch off your lights – and there is a little bit of moon – suddenly you see everything: the road, the mountains, the forest. It’s the same when you’re deep.””

      For anyone else wondering.