This project will curate an orphaned collection of 27,000 pelagic fish specimens from remote areas of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean and 400 historical collections of coastal fishes. These will add significantly to the Marine Vertebrate Collection?s strengths in pelagic and deepsea fishes, and eastern Pacific coastal fishes. A digital radiography system will be installed to enhance curatorial procedures and research capabilities and otherwise unavailable collection records will be digitized and posted on the Marine Vertebrate Collection (MVC) web site.
These orphaned and historical collections and MVC records will significantly augment studies on systematics, biogeography and development of fishes and contribute to research on how human activities and climate change have affected fish communities in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Scripps Institution of Oceanography is a world-renowned institution of ocean research and education and the MVC is one of the largest fish collections directly affiliated with an institution of higher learning. This project will provide training in collection management techniques and fish systematics to graduate and undergraduate students. Information from these collections and archives will be made available to researchers via the web and will augment outreach and teaching efforts by MVC staff, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, and others.
