CSIRO logo
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
About CMAR | News & Events | Publications | Careers | Doing Business | Contact | Education | Home

 

Research
 

Atmosphere and land observation and assessment

 

Climate variability and change

 

Aquaculture genetics, nutrition and production

 

Marine biogeochemistry

 

Marine ecological processes and prediction

 

Integrated marine and coastal assessment and management

 

Weather and environment prediction

 

Earth system modelling

 

Ocean observation, analysis and prediction

 

Partnerships & collaborations

Products & Services
Facilities
Home

 

Contact:

Related:

»

Australian National Fish Collection website

 

 

 

Library > Fact Sheets

Fact Sheet: Australian National Fish Collection

There is an increasing awareness of the need for ocean and coastal exploration, and the desire to know more about our marine environments and their biodiversity. The nationally funded Australian National Fish Collection (formerly the I.S.R. Munro Fish Collection) continues to grow under the management of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, at its Hobart Laboratories. With an estimated 145,000 specimens, its primary role is as a biodiversity reference and research tool, rather than a public display.

Oceans Search

As long as research expeditions extend the abilities of marine biologists to describe and understand the life histories of the ocean’s animals and plants, the role of collections and the efforts of taxonomists will continue to be a significant part of marine science.

From the deep ocean reefs and seamounts in the Southern Ocean far beyond the reach of sunlight to the tropical waterways of northern Australia, new ecological communities and marine species are being discovered regularly.

There is a perception that the oceans and seas around Australia are well-explored but scientists disagree. In fact, new species are being discovered at a faster rate today, than at any time over the previous 200 years.

The lack of information persists on our doorstep. We know more about the types of fishes living around Antarctica and Heard Island, than about the fish species found around much of continental Australia.

At ocean depths below 1,500 metres — which is more than 70 per cent of the entire Australian marine jurisdiction — hardly anything is known.

[top]

Fish Taxonomy

The practice of preserving fish for scientific study dates back to 17th century Europe. In more recent times, the development of collections has provided marine biologists with information on the lifecycles, behaviour, distribution and biology of represented species, contributing to the growing bank of scientific knowledge.

Established 60 years ago, the Australian National Fish Collection is one of the most comprehensive and important reference collections in Australia.

Ian Munro, a former fisheries scientist at CSIRO, started the Collection while preparing books on fish species from the Indo-Pacific Ocean region.

Judged by the diversity of species it holds, the Collection is among the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. All specialist collections strive for quality and diversity. The Collection’s focus on Indo—Pacific shark and ray, and temperate and Southern Ocean species gives it a pre-eminence among international collections.

Material has been obtained in many ways — from community studies and findings, fishers, and expeditions and cruises on survey and research vessels, notably Fairwind (Papua New Guinea region, 1948-1950), Stanley Fowler (tropical Australia, 1948-1950), Rama (Gulf of Carpentaria, 1963-1965), Courageous (1975-1979), Soela (1979-1989) and Southern Surveyor(1990 to present).

[top]

Marine Biodiversity

Australia has more than 10% of the world’s marine species, including an estimated 4,500 species of finfish, of which around 3,600 have been described. About one quarter of the species are only found in the region. The biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef includes some 1,500 species of fish. Of the 600 inshore species of finfish in the southern temperate zone, about 85% are found only in Australian waters. The few surveys conducted on the upper continental slope (200-400 metres depth) have already discovered twice the number of species found on similar slopes in the Atlantic, after decades of extensive surveys by the United States and Europe.

[top]

Reports from an Expedition

In the 1980s, commercial fishers went in pursuit of the ‘ancient’ orange roughy on the deep-ocean plateaus and mountains in the Southern Ocean. However it was not until 1994 that a team from the Australian Geological Survey Organisation completed the first detailed survey of their fishing grounds, which showed a number of extinct volcanoes with cones up to 400 metres high, located some 100 kilometres south of Tasmania at depths between 660 and 1940 metres beneath the sea’s surface.

At about the same time, scientists at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research were conducting an acoustic survey of the orange roughy fishing grounds. Using the CSIRO research vessel, Southern Surveyor, scientists conducted three experimental trawls on lightly fished seamounts to sample the seabed fauna, producing a surprising haul.

Among the creatures which spilled out onto the sorting tables were several tonnes of deep-sea coral and a dozen specimens of four previously undescribed species of fish — two deep-water cod from a genus only previously found in the South Atlantic and two deep-water lings.

In 1995, Environment Australia, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and the fishing industry agreed to provide interim protection to these seamounts with deep-water reserve status. Another survey aboard Southern Surveyor followed in 1997. This study of deep-sea life found 37 species of fish, as well as 259 species of invertebrates (such as corals, seastars and crabs). About one third of the invertebrates found were new to science and up to 40% of the new species are thought to only occur in this region.

[top]

The Munro Collection

The 145,000 specimens from 3,000 species (representing 300 fish families) include oceanic, deep-water, demersal, inshore, estuarine, river and lake fishes. Most are from Australian waters, but there are also collections from Papua New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands, as well as fish from New Zealand, the Antarctic continent and sub-Antarctic islands, Europe and South-east Asia, including Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines and Japan.

The Collection holds 160 holotypes and 1200 paratypes of 280 species new to science. It also contains a substantial amount of voucher material relating to published books and papers, illustrations and photographs. A valuable component of the Collection is the large Photographic Index of Australian Fishes (PIAF) and the radiographs, which are useful for detailed bone studies. The Collection also contains hundreds of jars of ichthyoplankton (fish eggs and larval fish), some of which are unsorted, and collections of otoliths (ear bones, for determining the age of fish).

A computerised index of the contents of the Collection has been developed using Texpress software designed by KE Software of Melbourne. This index will be linked up with other CSIRO collections and museum systems in the near future.

A substantial collection from the Tasmanian Department of Sea Fisheries, together with material from museums, professional fishermen and other Government organisations, has been incorporated into the Collection, which is managed by a staff of three people.

[top]

Using the Collection

In addition to its value as a reference library for other scientists and research organisations, the Collection has proved an invaluable resource for producing CSIRO publications. These include Australian Seafood Handbook: an identification guide to domestic species, and guides to the South East Fishery trawl quota species and Australian sharks and rays.

In researching the guide to the South East Fishery — one of Australia’s principal fisheries which has been fished for over 100 years and includes waters off Australia’s most populated coastline — six previously undescribed species of fish were found. The guide identifies more than 80 species of commercial fish from the South East Fishery and is intended to boost confidence in Australia’s seafood industry by assisting accurate fish identification from the time fish are caught until they are processed and sold.

Production of a nationwide identification guide for more than 600 species of Australian seafood — the Australian Seafood Handbook — also used the Collection as a resource. Voucher specimens of all finfish food species depicted in this book are held in the Collection.

[top]

Photographic Index of Australian Fishes

High-quality colour images used in the recently released 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.

PIAF is currently managed on a cost recovery basis although funding is being sought to make it more accessible to the broader community. In the future, transparencies will be digitised and databased for access via the web.

[top]

Acknowledgements
Dr Peter Last, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Mr Alastair Graham, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research

Updated: 12/11/08