The deep demersal fish fauna at depths of 100–400min canyons off
the St Lucia Marine Protected Area along the north coast of
KwaZulu-Natal is compared with similar fish communities at the
Comoro Islands and in the Indo-Pacific region. Fifty-four fish
species were seen or photographed from the submersible Jago or
by the discovery team of scuba divers in the coelacanth, Latimeria
chalumnae, habitat of the canyons off Sodwana Bay. An additional
94 fish species known from depths of 100–200 m along the coast of
northern KwaZulu-Natal are likely to occur in the canyon habitat.
The fish fauna of the Sodwana canyons shares at least 18 species
with the deep demersal fish community off tropical coral reefs of the
Indo-Pacific region. Thirty-seven of the Sodwana canyon fishes are
also known from the coelacanth habitat in the Comoros
