Scuba divers make ‘chance discovery’ of rarely seen fish off Indonesia. See it
Plunging into the crystalline waters of eastern Indonesia, scuba divers followed a steep slope hundreds of feet down. They paused for a minute before beginning their long ascent — and then they saw it.
Hovering near the rock was a rarely seen deep-sea fish: a coelacanth.
A team of marine biologists visited North Maluku in fall 2024 to search for “suspected coelacanth habitats,” according to a study published April 23 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.
“Coelacanths are lobe-finned fish that have been around for over 400 million years,” Blancpain Ocean Commitment, who funded the project, said in an April 24 news release. They have a “vestigial lung,” “special fins that move like limbs” and “might live up to 100 years.”
Researchers focused their North Maluku surveys on habitats for the “much less documented” coelacanth species, the Sulawesi Coelacanth, or Latimeria menadoensis, which had “very few” wild sightings and then “only from submersibles or Remotely Operated Vehicles,” the study said.
During the scuba dives, researchers found what “appeared to be the perfect” habitat for coelacanths. They returned to the site a few days later and made a “chance discovery:” a live coelacanth.
Photos show the elusive fish, which measured about 4 feet long and has a brown and white speckled body.
“Encountering such an emblematic and elusive animal at such a challenging depth is a moment forever engraved in our memory,” Unseen Expeditions, one of the groups involved in the project, wrote in an April 25 Instagram post.
Divers returned for a third dive and again encountered “the same” coelacanth, identified by its “unique colour pattern,” the study said. Both times, divers found the fish about 460 feet down and observed it for five to eight minutes.
The sightings were the “first wild encounter in a region where no coelacanth has been previously reported,” the study said.
Researchers kept the exact location of the sighting a secret “to protect” the coelacanth. North Maluku is a province in eastern Indonesia, in between Sulawesi island and New Guinea island.
“We hope this discovery will encourage local and national authorities to increase conservation efforts in this vibrant and biodiverse region,” researchers said.
“This monumental find not only enriches our understanding of marine biodiversity but also evokes a profound sense of wonder and excitement among scientists and conservationists worldwide,” Blancpain Ocean Commitment said. It is “a breathtaking reminder that the ocean remains largely unknown and that exploration is as relevant as ever.”
The research team included Alexis Chappuis, I Gede Hendrawan, M. Janib Achmad, Gaël Clément, Mark Erdmann, Frensly Hukom, Julien Leblond and Gino Limmon.
This story was originally published April 29, 2025 at 9:42 AM with the headline "Scuba divers make ‘chance discovery’ of rarely seen fish off Indonesia. See it."
