Search for a living fossil - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 165

An earlier and unfortunately unsuccessful coelacanth expedition in
1971 was led by Dr. Murray Newman, director of the Vancouver Aquar-
ium. To stimulate the fishing e¤ort, he o¤ered a handsome reward to
any fisherman who caught a healthy coelacanth. The lucky fisherman
would receive a free, all-expenses-paid trip to Mecca plus a cash bonus.
This was strong incentive indeed, since Comorans are devout Moslems
and none of the fishermen could ever expect to a¤ord such a trip in
their lifetime. John McCosker followed Murray's example and made a
similar o¤er.
The expedition included John McCosker; Sandra McCosker, anthro-
pologist and French interpreter; Dr. Michael Lagios, physiologist; Dr.
Sylvia Earle, specialist in marine algae and a superb diver; Al Giddings
and Chuck Nicklin, underwater filmmakers; John Breeden, son of the
financial backer of the expedition; and me, who, we all hoped, would
handle the transport of the first living coelacanth back to the Steinhart.
What with all the diving, photographic, and fish transport gear, we
had literally tons of equipment. It was quite a project just getting it
from San Francisco to that remote corner of the Indian Ocean. Get-
ting the team there wasn't simple either, mostly because we didn't all
plan to arrive at the Comoros at the same time. Sylvia Earle and I, for
example, came later than the others, and on separate days.
My itinerary was San Francisco to Houston to Paris, where I would
catch the twice-weekly flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and from there
by Air Comores to Moroni on Grande Comore. The schedule looked
fine on paper, but my flight from Houston to Paris was delayed, so I
missed the connection to Tanzania and had to spend three days in cold,
rainy Paris. Since I'd packed clothes for summer in the Southern Hemi-
sphere, I froze.
Finally, though, I was on board the Air France flight from Paris to
Dar es Salaam, and it was spectacular. Not only was the French food
delicious, but the accommodating pilot circled and banked the plane
twice around the top of Africa's highest mountain, nineteen-thousand-
foot Kilimanjaro, giving passengers on both sides a breathtaking view
of its majestic, snow-covered peak.
Upon my arrival in hot, dusty Dar es Salaam, the treatment I got
from the Tanzanian immigration and customs o‹cials was far from