An old book to review, but worth it!
Prof. J.L.B. Smith
(1965 edition, text 1953(?), South Africa Central News Agency, 580pp.)
This is a 5th edition, dated 1965 but almost
unchanged in the text from earlier editions.
The first edition in 1949 is a landmark in that it was not only the most
comprehensive reference on the topic but included Smith’s discovery, the
coelacanth, as a species. The text here
was written after only the second specimen (20 December 1952) had been
obtained, and when Smith considered the Comoros coelacanth a different species
than the example from South Africa. Since the third specimen (24 September
1953) is not mentioned, that dates the text to between those events.
Looking back at this from 2020, it’s still very much a book
worth having. I’m still looking for an
earlier edition, but it’s been reissued enough that you can find used
copies.
First there is the sheer mass of data. Smith counts 1,325
species known from seas off the southern half of Africa. With help from his with his scientific
assistant / wife / artist Margaret (who did about half of the 1,320
illustrations) he catalogued fishes by classification and added notes such as
range, preferred environment, rarity, edibility, and so on: the number of
details written into this book is hard to visualize. Two Appendices add some
species not covered in the first edition.
Despite the age of the book, Smith’s explanations of such things as fish
classification, anatomy, the environmental effects of fishing, even how to
preserve a specimen are all good and not too technical for us amateurs. Side
note: there is a dual biography called The Fishy Smiths.
On to some major entries. The big one, of course, is the
coelacanth. Smith explains why it was surprising and why it was important, and
noted his division into two species might not be clear-cut, as the Comoros
specimen was damaged and the fins may not reflect their appearance in life.
[All coelacanths on the African side of the Indian Ocean are now one species,
with the second being from Indonesia.]
One of the most famous fishes of South Africa is the great
white shark. This entry is really interesting. At the time Smith wrote, Otodus
megalodon was not clearly distinguished from C. carcharias. While Megalodon had been classified by
Agassiz in 1843, ichthyologists of Smith’s time generally put it in the genus
Carcharodon, and Smith apparently considered the two sharks conspecifics. He
gives the maximum length of the great white shark as 40 (!) feet [a figure due
to gross overestimates and possibly misidentified basking sharks]. He writes. ”Teeth 5 in. long have been
dredged from the depths, indicating Sharks of 100 ft., with jaws at least 6 ft.
across. These monsters may still live in deep water but it is better to believe
them extinct.” He mentions they are claimed by sailors to develop a taste for
human flesh, but adds, “This sounds rather speculative and one would prefer not
to test it out.” He notes, “Only one
species in our area.” Which is also interesting, implying there were claims of other species at the
time.
On the thresher sharks, Smith writes, “This Shark is stated
to take part with Killer-Whales in attacks on whales, but positive evidence is
lacking.” Hammerhead sharks, we learn, were also known as mallet sharks. The
length given for basking shark is only 25 feet, an underestimate: in many
species, such as swordfish, Smith sticks to relatively conservative estimates
and avoids wild claims (assuming he knew of them). The whale shark is estimated
at 50 feet and probably more but is so are that he adds a request that any
specimen be reported to a museum. Smith includes a lot of fish in this book,
those known from one or a few specimens, for which he makes the same plea.
Things have changed since this was written – species found,
species reclassified, species demoted, etc. Sea Fishes of Southern Africa,
though, remains a classic that gives a baseline for modern ichthyologists to
work from, and it’s just plain interesting for any aficionado to browse through.
