The Manado coelacanth: what happened near Manado Tua

By Bunaken Island Editorial Desk

The Manado coelacanth is Latimeria menadoensis, the Indonesian coelacanth. Wikipedia says it first came to notice in a market at Manado Tua on 18 September 1997, was named in 1999 and was first filmed in place in 2009. Sources disagree on dates and places. Recreational divers should not expect to see one.

What is the Manado coelacanth?

It is the Indonesian coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, a fish species named after Manado and described in a 1999 issue of Comptes Rendus, according to Wikipedia. The same entry classes it as vulnerable and says fewer than 10 examples have been recorded in Indonesia since its discovery. That second number should set your expectations before anything else on this page: this is a species known from a handful of records, not a resident of any dive site.

Its connection to Bunaken is geographic. The story turns on Manado Tua, the volcanic island inside the national park, and on the deep water around it. The anatomy and evolutionary history of coelacanths in general are outside this page; the Wikipedia entry in the source list is the place to start. What follows is the local record, in order, including where it does not agree with itself.

How was it found in 1997?

In a market, on Wikipedia's and Divernet's accounts. Wikipedia says Arnaz and Mark Erdmann saw an unfamiliar fish in a market at Manado Tua on 18 September 1997. That detail is the appealing part of the story: the first known sign of the species in these waters was not a research dive but a fish on sale.

The formal step came afterwards. A sighting is not a species description, and the naming followed in 1999, two years after the market encounter. The species name itself records the place: menadoensis, after Manado.

Why do sources give different dates and places?

Because they are describing different moments, and sometimes blurring them. Four accounts are in circulation:

• Wikipedia: 18 September 1997, a market at Manado Tua.
• Divernet: a Manado fish market, so the same kind of event but a different place name.
• The park booking portal: 1998, around Manado Tua. This official line gives a later year and no market.
• Dive The World: discovered in 1997 living in the lava tubes of Manado Tua. This agent's version places the discovery in the water, not on a market stall.

The likeliest explanation for the 1997 and 1998 split is that sources mix the first sighting with a later specimen. Read that way, the two dates are steps in one sequence, and neither has to be wrong. That is our reading of the record.

The place conflict between Manado and Manado Tua is smaller than it looks. Wikipedia says the name Manado Tua means Old Manado, because the settlement moved to Sulawesi and took the name with it. With names that closely tied, a writer summarising the story could easily compress one into the other. The accounts still differ, though, and if the detail matters to you, cite your source rather than picking one silently.

The lava-tube version needs more care. A market sighting and a live discovery in a lava tube are different events. Dive The World's sentence may be a shorthand for where the fish lives rather than how it first came to notice, but it reads as a discovery story, and it comes from a company that sells diving in the area. When an account like that conflicts with an encyclopedia and an official portal, treat it as colour rather than as history.

Has it been filmed in the wild?

Yes. Wikipedia's park entry says the Indonesian coelacanth was first filmed in place off Manado Tua in 2009, twelve years after the market sighting. That gap says something about how hard this animal is to find: on this account, more than a decade passed between first notice and the first footage of the species where it lives.

Can divers expect to see one?

No. A recreational diver should not expect a sighting, and no one can honestly offer one. Three points support that plain answer.

1. The numbers: Wikipedia's count of fewer than 10 examples recorded in Indonesia since discovery leaves no basis for odds on any given dive.
2. The depth: Divernet's account of the search is about technical divers on trimix, a deep-diving gas mix, and it does not claim a guaranteed sighting. Underwater Atlas describes Bunaken's walls as running from 3 to 5 m to beyond 40 m, and Scuba Guide warns that they fall past recreational depths. The walls go far deeper than a recreational diver should follow.
3. The water: Wikipedia gives depths of 1,566 m in Manado Bay. A fish recorded this rarely is not something a day boat can schedule.

Technical diving at Bunaken appears here only as Divernet's account. It is a separate discipline with its own training and risks, and this page is neither an endorsement of it nor a route to it.

What should you make of a coelacanth mention in a dive advert?

Treat it as local history, which is a fair thing for an operator to talk about. It becomes a problem only when it starts to sound like something a trip includes. If a company mentions the species, three questions sort out what it means:

• Are you saying this has been seen on your trips, or only that it was recorded in this area?
• If seen, when, by whom, and at what depth?
• Does anything in my booking or price depend on it?

Book a Bunaken or Manado Tua dive for what is actually on offer: the walls, the reef and the animals people report seeing. Our Bunaken marine life guide covers those, the Bunaken diving guide covers the practical side, and our Manado Tua island page covers the place where this story happened.

What else do people ask about the coelacanth?

Who discovered the Indonesian coelacanth?

Wikipedia says Arnaz and Mark Erdmann saw the fish in a market at Manado Tua on 18 September 1997. The species was formally described in a 1999 issue of Comptes Rendus.

Where was the Indonesian coelacanth found?

Sources differ. Wikipedia says a market at Manado Tua, Divernet says a Manado fish market, the park portal says around Manado Tua, and Dive The World says the lava tubes of Manado Tua.

What is a coelacanth?

A rare and vulnerable species of fish. The one in this story is Latimeria menadoensis, the Indonesian coelacanth, named after Manado, according to Wikipedia. For coelacanths in general, follow the Wikipedia entry in the source list.

Can divers see coelacanths in Bunaken?

Recreational divers should not expect to. Wikipedia counts fewer than 10 examples recorded in Indonesia since discovery, and Divernet's account of the search involves technical divers on trimix, with no guaranteed sighting.

What is the rare coelacanth near Bunaken?

It is the Indonesian coelacanth, first seen in 1997 and first filmed in place off Manado Tua in 2009, according to Wikipedia. Manado Tua is one of the park's five islands.

Which sources support this page?

• Wikipedia: Latimeria menadoensis
• Divernet: technical diving in Bunaken Marine Park
• Park booking portal
• Dive The World: Manado and Bunaken
• Wikipedia: Manado Tua
• Wikipedia: Bunaken National Park
• Underwater Atlas: Bunaken
• Scuba Guide: Bunaken

How do I reach the desk?

Corrections to this history are welcome at WhatsApp +62 811-3941-4563 or bd@juaraholding.com, especially a primary reference that settles a date or a place. The desk cannot arrange or promise a sighting of this species.