A FISH CAUGHT IN TIME

What can I say, except WOW!

This INCREDIBLE READ (published in 2001 by Harper Perennial) is an incredible testament to the power of PISCATORIAL LOVE. As usual with our VERY BEST RECRUITING EFFORTS, this all went down as a CAREFULLY-MANAGED PROJECT that was indistinguishable -- in the eyes of a Shaved Monkey -- from a series of ASTOUNDING COINCIDENCES.

FIRST, Captain Goosen "just happened" to give Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer a call, right before Squidmas of 1938. She was originally planning to TAKE A PASS, but she decided to drop by his boat and see what he'd caught that day.

THEN, she JUST HAPPENED to uncover our Coelacanth operative, largely concealed under a pile of Sharks on Goosen's forecastle. Goosen commented, Oh yeah, I MEANT to tell you about that one. Kind of unusual, eh, Marge?

It JUST SO HAPPENED that Courtenay-Latimer had a childhood trauma about FOSSIL FISH involving a cruel nun. That got her thinking harder about WHAT SORT OF FISH THIS MIGHT BE. She looked it up and there it was...OLDER THAN FLOWERING PLANTS, BUT STILL ALIVE AND FLAPPING.

IT JUST SO HAPPENED that Courtenay-Latimer knew an eminent amateur fishologist, J.L.B. Smith, and she cabled him about the find.

From there, the avalanche was UNSTOPPABLE. The book describes the mighty Coelacanth lying in state as THE ENTIRE STATE OF CONNECTICUT files past in awe, with a police officer directing foot traffic as tears stream down his face. We see Dr. Smith PRACTICALLY KILLING HIMSELF to find and study another, then another and yet another Coaelacanth. We can almost FEEL THE SHOCK WAVES as another species of Coelacanth is found in another ocean.

They even quoted a German schoolchild who, when asked why life was still worth living, said simply "Coelacanths still exist."

And now HERE WE ARE, halfway to our goal!

I can think of no better way to end this book review than to quote J.L.B. Smith. These are WORDS I LIVE BY, EVERY DAY:

"We have in the past assumed that we have mastery not only of the land but of the sea. We have not. Life goes on there just as it did from the beginning. Man's influence as yet is but a passing shadow."