Ichthyology Highlights

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The Department of Ichthyology is home to one of the largest and most important collections of fishes in the world, and is designated as one of eight International Centers for Ichthyology in North America.

Catalog of Fishes

Catalog of FishesThe Catalog of Fishes is the authoritative reference for taxonomic fish names, featuring a searchable on-line database.

Annotated Checklists of Fishes

This series serves to provide the most up-to-date taxonomic treatment of the families of recent fishes.

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Ichthyology on the 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition

M/V DA-BFARIchthyology staff participated in several ventures as part of the Academy's 2011 expedition to the Philippines.  Senior Collections Manager David Catania dove in shallow waters off the southern coast of Luzon Island, along with other scientists from the Academy and the Philippines.  They also made excursions to Taal Lake in search of a freshwater sardine and new species of freshwater gobies.  Finally, the Department's Curator Emeritus, Tomio Iwamoto, and Department of Aquatic Biology Curator, John McCosker, joined Dave and other marine scientists on the vessel M/V DA-BFAR (pictured) to trawl in the deep waters around Lubang Island.  Among other things, they found a new species of snake eel, Myrichthys paleracio, described by Dr. McCosker.  All told, Academy and Philippine scientists discovered over 300 species that are likely new to science.

• More about the expedition's results

• Read Dave's entry in the expedition's blog

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Ichthyology Blog

Day 3 - Unexpected end.
We are finally here, and the most important piece of equipment onboard, the compressor to fill our scuba tanks, breaks down. It is unfortunate, and we will certainly be more prepared next time. But there are still some things we can do just snorkelling. Large schools of fish were a common sight. And with that we head ...
Day 2 - First dives
The Parcel Manuel Luiz is a marine State Park, and it is truly amazing how different it is to dive in a protected area. During our first dive we saw many large fish, usually not seen in areas frequented by fishermen. Our first dive also brought a welcome surprise. During my last trip to the area ...
Day 1 - Sailing out
In Sao Luis (Maranhao State, northeastern Brazil) I met with the team from SISBIOTA Project to start our 24 hour journey onboard the catamaran Acqua 2 to Parcel Manuel Luis, one of the most remote coral reefs in the South Atlantic. The waters were murky nearshore as this area is influenced by very large rivers, but ...
Expedition to Brazil
On Sunday, April 8th, Dr. Luiz Rocha embarks in an expedition to explore the remote reefs of Parcel Manuel Luiz, just south of the Amazon mouth in Brazil. There he will join a team of six Brazilian scientists to survey fish and coral communities, and evaluate the impact of climate change on those reefs.