9616312 Burgess & Gilbert The collection of fishes from the Tropical Atlantic Biological Laboratory was divided in 1972 between the collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Miami, the latter institution chose to divest itself of the collection and the Florida Museum chose to adopt it, thus reuniting the Tropical Atlantic Biological Laboratory collection. This award provides supplies and personnel to emergency-curate these specimens to ensure their longevity. Overall, the process of adoption of this orphaned collection has been funded by a partnership of institutions and agencies. The divesting institution (University of Miami) provided support for the transport of the collection from Miami to Gainesville, the National Biological Service (now the Biological Resources Division of the USGS) and the State of Florida provided funding for computer cataloging of the collection, and the Florida Museum of Natural History has provided funds for leasing storage space for the collection while new collections space in the Museum itself is being constructed and renovated. In addition, the Museum has put in place a plan to replace the current curator of fishes upon his retirement, as well as to hire a collection manager for the fish collection not only for the duration of this project, but permanently. The NSF investment in this multi-partnered, leveraged project is for of student assistance, and in curatorial equipment and supplies. The objectives of this project are to with newly printed labels that have a Florida Museum accession number, and completely computer catalog the adopted collection to a standard equivalent to the existing Florida Museum collections. This work will be carried out by the student workers and the new collection manager, who will be supervised by the PI. At the end of the project, the Florida Museum fish collection, which is currently ranked as the second most important National Center for ichthyology, may well have achieved International Ce nter status.
