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Collection Profile
Photographic Index of Australian Fishes
High-quality colour images used in the Australian
Seafood Handbook form part of the largest taxonomic photographic
collection of Australian fishes, known as the Photographic Index of Australian
Fishes (PIAF).
PIAF is a valuable research and fishing industry resource. The collection
is the largest of its type in the Southern Hemisphere and consists of
over 40,000 colour transparencies of more than 2,500 fish species or more
than half of Australia’s entire fish fauna.
It encompasses all of Australia’s commercial seafood species, and
contains the only photographs in existence of many bycatch species. It
contains images of species from rivers and estuaries, from near-shore
to the deep ocean, from the temperate regions to the tropics, as well
as from remote offshore islands and the sub-Antarctic. CSIRO marine scientists
have assembled PIAF over the last 30 years as a by-product of coastal
and deep ocean surveys, which are estimated to have cost more than $30
million.
Specimens are usually photographed when fresh to capture the fish’s
natural coloration. Sometimes they are photographed after thawing from
a freezer. The fish are pinned out to display their fins and photographed
on a lightbox using flash lighting to obtain the most detail.
PIAF will ultimately incorporate images of all Australian fish species.
The images can be used for a range of commercial and applied purposes,
such as product promotion through web sites, consumer education and
interactive fish identification. Besides the Australian Seafood Handbook,
images have been used extensively in several books, such as South
East Fishery Quota Species: an identification guide, Field Guide
to Trawl Fish from Temperate Waters of Australia and Continental
Shelf Fishes of Northern and North-Western Australia.
For more information about using photographs from the ANFC Photographic
collection, please contact:
Mr Alastair Graham
Collection Manager
GPO Box 1538
HOBART TAS 7001
Ph: (03) 6232 5351 (intnl: 61 3 6232 5351)
Email: Alastair.Graham@csiro.au
Updated:
7/11/08
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