I bought and read the book: "A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth" by Samantha Weinberg. The natives allegedly did eat it when they found it in their nets, but it wasn't that good...very greasy. After the Coelacanth was discovered alive, word spread that money was being offered to people who found them, so that ended their place on the menu.
According to a Coelacanth website: "They don't taste good. People, and most likely other fish-eating animals, don't eat coelacanths because their flesh has high amounts of oil, urea, wax esters, and other compounds that give them a foul flavor and can cause sickness. They're also slimy; not only do their scales ooze mucus, but their bodies exude large quantities of oil."
Woohoo! Start drilling for those babies!