Coelacanth Recollections

Recollections of the Past 30 years pursuing Coelacanths
Jerome Hamlin, creator dinofish.com

One of the first things I did on our return, was to send the photos into National Geographic. These were some of the better photos available of coelacanths at that moment. Most photos showed them dried up or in a tank of formalin. But no go with Nat Geo.

I sought help from experts in preparing a proposal for support from the Explorers Club. That support would help with funds.

We stayed engaged with our contacts in the Comoros.

Notes for a meeting following the rejection of our application by the board and leaks about our project to competing institutions

On the second go round, I got word the project had been approvd.

I had to sign my life away!

We all did.

Paul offered the specimens to Jack Musick at the same time I was trying to coordinate with Willy Beemis as our science contact. This led to confusion.

I tried to solve complications with the specimen recepients while augmenting our scientific component with top marine biologists.





With the application passed, we were cleared to raise money using the name of The Explorers Club. One of these efforts was successful with a private foundation.



  A hand written letter to the Rolex Foundation was not successful.

Now our science program was in place, authored by a top coelacanth biologist.

We were ready for phase II, the second expedition.

We were ready for phase II, the second expedition.

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