OK, I’m going from memory here, so take this with the requisite grains of salt…
I seem to recall reading that fishers along the south east coast of Africa were not terribly impressed with the coelocanth. They, of course, had known about it all along, but were not fond of it. The heavy fish broke their lines and nets, and it tasted pretty bad so they couldn’t sell or eat it.
“The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord