@Tim or anyone else who may know: has any aquarium or zoo ever tried to capture a coelacanth alive in order to exhibit it?
I believe Japan has shown interest (I don't know details, but I'm pretty sure I read about it in one of the coelacanth books, probably "A Fish Caught In Time"). They are pretty tough fish. The one filmed for Attenborough's series Life On Earth in the late 70s was hauled up from the depths, rowed ashore strapped to a canoe, and then filmed slowly swimming in a shallow lagoon (it was dying, it must be admitted). One caught off Sulawesi was also rowed to shore in a boat and then placed in a saltwater pool at a resort where it was filmed and photographed before being released again (although its hard not to think that it did die after all that): I think the second photo on this link is of that specimen Natural History Highlight - National Museum of Natural History
