The Western Australian Museum Fish Collection
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 2 days ago
When most people think about natural history museums, they imagine galleries of exhibits – stuffed animals and a few jars of preserved critters with panels of information. These public exhibition spaces are important for museums because it is one of the ways we tell the stories of the world around us. However, most people don’t know that what you see on display is only a tiny fraction of the collection housed at the museum and public exhibitions are only a small part of the work of the museum.
What's in a name?
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 3 weeks ago
As scientists we usually rely on a scientific name to describe a species. This is because, for the most part, each ‘type’ of fish has only a single, unique name. It is based on a binomial system, introduced by Linnaeus in 1753. Each name comprises two words: a Genus (capitalised and italicised) and a species (lower case and italicised) name. For example the humble Australian Herring is called Arripis georgianus.
Notes about the WA Checklist of Terrestrial Vertebrates
0 MuseumCollections blog | Updated 4 weeks ago
In April 2012, we published our revised Western Australian Checklist for Vertebrate Fauna. There were a few questions about some of the details raised on Facebook and Twitter. This reply was written by Ornithology curator, Ron Johnstone in response to some of the birds listings in the checklist:
Western Australian Salmon
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 1 month ago
Every Easter, hundreds of fishermen visit the south-west corner in the hope of catching a ‘salmon’. These are no ordinary ‘salmon’ – these are Western Australian Salmon Arripis truttaceus. It is an important distinction, because they are not true salmon, in fact not even vaguely related. They belong to a family of fishes (Arripidae) found only in Australia and New Zealand, and there are only four species. A sister-species, the eastern Australian Salmon Arripis trutta occurs in south-east Australia and New Zealand (where it is called Kahawai).
This is our Dogumentary
0 MuseumPrograms blog | Updated 4 weeks ago
This is our Dogumentary was a documentary produced as part of the Perth International Arts Festival created in partnership with ABC Open. The Western Australian Museum — Albany was proud to be associated with creation of this documentary, and invite you to see this piece about Albany's iconic Dog Rock.
This is our Dogumentary - http://open.abc.net.au/posts/this-is-our-dogumentary-95ft1iy
Creature Feature – Toxic Crabs
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 4 weeks ago
Crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters and prawns are a major component of peoples’ diets around the world with eleven million tonnes caught or cultured annually. Despite a considerable diversity of crustacean species in Australia, only a handful of species are harvested as part of commercial or recreational fisheries. In Western Australia there are only about a half-dozen crab species that are commonly seen in seafood restaurants or fish markets, with the blue swimmer and mud crabs being the most common.
Harry Butler - Congratulations
0 MuseumPrograms blog | Updated 2 months ago
Congratulations to Dr Harry Butler on his recent appointment as a National Living Treasure.
The National Trust of Australia (NSW)’s National Living Treasures list recognises 100 individuals who’ve made an outstanding contribution to society.
Harry is known for his tireless naturalist and conservation work, having played a major role in the conservation and restoration of Australia’s environment over the past 50 years.
Creature Feature: Pandarus rhincodonicus
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 2 months ago
Even the biggest animals have fleas, and the mighty whale shark is no exception. Pandarus rhincodonicus, is a small crustacean, barely reaching one centimetre in length, belonging to a group of crustaceans known as copepods which are normally known to be free-living and a dominant group within planktonic communities. However, many species are bottom dwellers or parasites of other marine animals, particularly fish. Pandarus rhincodonicus was first discovered in WA and was only named and formally described in 2000.
Vanessa Kredler
0 MuseumPrograms blog | Updated 3 months ago
UNESCO Program Specialist Vanessa Kredler gave a public lecture at UWA on Wednesday 29 February 2012 on the role of museums as agents for social change. This lecture was presented by UWA, with support form the WA Museum. You can hear her lecture through UWA's site: http://prod.lcs.uwa.edu.au:8080/ess/echo/presentation/23db7dfc-91ef-40ab-8b9c-64897e5d92d3
Japanese Rubyfish - a new record for Western Australia
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 2 months ago
A photograph of an unusual fish was recently brought to our attention by fishermen on a popular WA-based fishing forum (www.fishwrecked.com). It certainly got us thinking, and after diving into the literature and speaking to colleagues, we are convinced that we have an exciting new record for WA. The fish is known as a Japanese Rubyfish Erythrocles schlegelii (Richardson in 1846), in the family Emmelichthyidae (bonnetmouths).
