SALIMANI, Comoros -- When the fisherman felt a strange tugging on his line, he knew this was no ordinary sea creature biting on the other end.

"When we got back to the shore, I called my sister Riama to come with a hurricane lamp," said Maecha Msa, an old man recounting a night-time fishing trip in the Comoros islands, Reuters reported. "All the villagers came to see the fish," he said, as children gathered round to listen to his tale in the tiny seashore settlement of Salimani. "It was shining like gold."

The creature was a coelacanth, a "living fossil" at least a meter (yard) long dating back to the age of the dinosaurs.

Believed to have been extinct for 70 million years, a specimen was caught by a trawler off South Africa in 1938 in one of the scientific sensations of the 20th century.

Today, the odd specimen still turns up in the Comoros islands off east Africa, where undersea caves provide one of the world's few known haunts for a fish nicknamed "Old Four Legs" because of its limb-like fins.

The coelacanth is just one of the natural wonders on the archipelago, a treasure trove of endangered species.

Often overlooked by tourists heading to its giant neighbor Madagascar -- known around the world as a "hot spot" of rare species -- Comoros boasts its own array of natural riches creeping through tropical forests or thriving under the sea.

From sea turtles, to huge bats, unique orchids and lemurs swinging through the trees, the islands are bursting with an abundance of species that environmentalists hope to protect with parks to deter fisherman, farmers and poachers.

A marine reserve set up in 1998 on Moheli -- the smallest of three main isles making up the archipelago -- has had some success in saving turtles from poachers and conserving the Livingstone Fruit Bats unique to the islands. Money for other parks on the Indian Ocean chain -- one of the world's poorest countries -- is proving harder to find. **** Magical Marine World****

One of the main threats to the coelacanth population off Comoros -- estimated at about 200 according to a recent report -- comes from villagers like Msa hauling them up by mistake.

Waters close to the shore are increasingly exhausted, driving fisherman using dugout canoes further out to sea, where the coelacanth lives at depths of 120 meters (390 feet) or more.

Awareness campaigns have helped reduce the number of the fish landed, but environmentalists are keen to create an offshore park to guarantee better protection, aiming to mirror progress made on Moheli.

The government is keen to attract more "eco-tourists" to such reserves, where local people could earn money as guides, income from entrance fees would be ploughed into the community and scientists using them for study would generate revenue.

But Comoros, despite sandy beaches and breathtaking volcanic scenery, lures only a relative trickle of tourists -- partly due to poor air links with Europe and a history of soldiers meddling in government affairs since independence from France in 1975. "People only know Comoros for military coups and politics," said Ahmed Ouledi, president of the Ulanga environmental group, the biggest on the islands. "We can show to the world the island's ecological riches."

*** Trees Felled for Perfume Above the coast, where waves crash against a shore of dried lava, virgin forests clinging to volcanoes shelter birds like the Comoros Blue Pigeon, Humblot's Sunbird, Comoro Bulbul and at least 50 types of plants found only on the islands.

Like the world under the sea, the woodlands are under threat -- mainly due to farmers seeking timber, firewood or land to help feed the rapidly growing population of 585,000.

On the second biggest island of Anjouan, trees are used as fuel in the distillation process for ylang ylang essence, used to make perfume. "This cutting down of wood to make essential oils causes deforestation," said Mohamed Hassani Said, a chemist. "We're trying to explain to producers that there are other sources of energy that you can use, like gas."

Time is short. The forest cover in Comoros has shrunk to less than 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) today compared to 31,000 in 1960, and deforestation is continuing apace.

The government hopes to create another national park on the slopes of an active volcano, the 2,361 meter (7,746 feet) Mount Karthala, to protect the remaining trees, but as with other projects on the islands, there is a lack of money.