Western Australian Museum › Collections › Collections › Aquatic Zoology › Fish (Ichthyology) Section

Fish (Ichthyology) Section

0 Collections | Updated 5 months ago

The Western Australian Museum's Fish Collection comprises 175,000 specimens from 319 different families.

Fish specimens have been collected since 1896 – only five years after the Western Australian Museum (then Perth Museum) was established. A separate fish section was established in 1970.

From 1912 hand-written records of fish specimens have been kept, with some of the oldest documented specimens being a seadragon from Bunbury and a pygmy perch from the Vasse River, Busselton.

The collection has steadily increased since 1912, with most collection activity occurring in the last 35 years. Currently the fish section has a comprehensive collection that includes over 704 type specimens of which 347 are primary types.

Many of the fish specimens in the collection are from nearshore, shallow-water reef habitats and inshore trawl-caught specimens, but a growing number of deep-water species from beyond the continental shelf have been added to the collection in recent years.

Fish specimens are used for taxonomic research by scientists in Australia and overseas. Numerous specimens are regularly sent on loan around the world to fish specialists.

Collection data from this collection is available online through the Atlas of Living Australia: http://collections.ala.org.au/public/show/co77

Number of items
Approximately 51,000 specimen lots that represent around 175,000 individual specimens

Related content

Highlights and selected collections

Collections

Donate to the collection


New specimens are accepted into the fish collection at the discretion of the fish curator. Generally such specimens should have full details of when, where and how they were collected and should be in good condition. In some circumstances specimens that do not fulfil the above requirements may be accepted if they are rare or have value for use in exhibitions.

Guidelines for identification


Requests for specimen identification can be made to staff in the fish section by e-mail, phone or in person (the latter by prior arrangement). If a specimen(s) is brought into the Museum and left for identification, a form for Information, Identification or Conservation must be completed.
If the identification is for personal interest or scientific research, there is no charge. If the identification is for a funded project, then the identification(s) will be charged for at a set rate per hour.

Collection contact


Glenn Moore
Curator (Fishes)
Phone: (08) 9212 3744
Email:  glenn.moore@museum.wa.gov.au
Fax: (08) 9212 3882

Sue Morrison
Collection Manager (Fishes)
Phone: (08) 9212 3743
Email:  sue.morrison@museum.wa.gov.au
Fax: (08) 9212 3882

All content copyright Government of Western Australia, All rights reserved.