Halbert <hal### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Not really. I wouldn't be surprised though if we found that the coelacanth 
> has been in danger for centuries or even thousands of years. They have never 
> been known to be common, not during recorded history.

  They were rather known in the Comoros by local fishermen because they
would occasionally get one in their net, so it's not like it has been a
completely unknown fish in recent history. Nowadays Comorians are trying
to preserve the coecalanths by returning them to the sea when they catch
one by mistake, because of their endangered status.

> If people are 
> responsible for their current status, I can't imagine how it happened. If 
> they were over-fished we would probably know about it. I don't think we have 
> deprived them of a habitat- not yet. Their food supply has always, and still 
> is, plentiful. It may sound like a dumb question, but, in what way has 
> mankind contributed to the dissapperance of the coelacanth?

  Large-scale commercial fishing has shifted from continental shelves to
their slopes, endangering many deep-sea fish species (because deep sea fish
reproduce very slowly).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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