Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Book Review: A Fish Caught in Time Picked this book up in the remaindered section of my local bookstore in The Beaches on a whim. I had always been interested in the story of the coelacanth, and that story is well portrayed here. It is a fish from before the age of the dinosaurs and was known only from the fossil record until one day in the late 1930s in East London, South Africa, one suddenly appeared before a knowledgeable museum curator who recognized its possible significance. This fishy tale is all about the history of the coelacanth, both in evolutionary terms, and more interestingly, in the ways its discovery have impacted human society. The book also tells the story of a number of fascinating people, and the lengths to which they all searched for the homes of this hard-to-find fish.

Author Samantha Weinberg recounts how the initial coelacanth find made it a cause celebre around the world, and manages to convey the atmosphere of the times and places she recounts in the book where the fish were found: 1930s South Africa, 1950s Comoros and 1990s Indonesia. Along the way you see how evolutionary science has progressed in the past 60 years, learn about the politics surrounding the fish, and the very differing personalities who have gone to great lengths to capture this remarkable fish.

As compelling a read as I found this, the book is marred by the occasionally slap-dash writing style, with interesting tid-bits thrown at various places in the book, picked up again later, then dropped again. The liveliest chapters in the book are those which feature people the author interviewed, such as the original discoverer of the fish (Majorie Courtnay-Lattimer), and later scientists and adventurers who continue the search for this elusive fish in far-flung water today. The book is a bit weak on the science side, as the author is more interested in conveying the social ramifications of the discoveries involving the coelacanth. Still, it is a fun read and those who are interested in science-oriented books will find this a fun read.