9400842 McEachran The objectives of the proposed research are to survey and inventory the fish species that occur in the Gulf of Mexico, and to summarize these data in the form of a book on the fishes of the Gulf and as a computer data base. The proposed audience of the book is the scientists, students and fishers with interests in the fishes of this region, and the scientists and students studying biogeography of the Gulf and more inclusive areas. The computer data base will summarize the distributions of fishes from the Gulf residing in 10 major natural history collections. Specifically we propose to: 1) list, fully describe and distinguish from other species all of the species that occur in the Gulf; 2) provide pen and ink, pencil shaded illustrations of all species; 3) provided keys to all ordinal, familial and specific taxa that occur in the Gulf; 4) briefly summarize life history and distributional information of all species; 5) combine all of the information into a book on the fishes of the Gulf of Mexico; and 6) build a computer data base for all verified species records of the Gulf of Mexico. These objectives will be accomplished by surveying museums with specimens and the literature with references to fishes from the Gulf of Mexico. To data the project slightly over one-half complete. Approximately 1,150 pages of text describing 670 species in 130 families and 38 orders have been prepared. A total of 650 species of fishes have been illustrated, and separate illustrations have been prepared for representatives of six families to define photophore patterns used in identification of species and for specialized structures mentioned in the keys to species. It is anticipated that the remaining 600 to 700 species and 68 family descriptions, 600 to 700 species illustrations, and the surveys of ten natural history collections can be completed within three years. Benefits of the proposed study include: 1) an up-to-date synopsis of the systematics, life history and distribution of t he fishes that occur in the Gulf of Mexico, the ninth largest body of water in the World, 2) a single source for the identification of fishes in the Gulf and 3) an initiation of a computer data base of distributional records for the fishes that occur in the Gulf. It is anticipated that the sixth objective and third benefit will not be completed at the end of the three year period of the proposed study.
