Fish Section visitors
Every year many scientists visit the Australian Museum Research Institute Ichthyology department for their research. Further information is available on the AMRI Awards & Fellowships pages.
Professor Mike Bennett works at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland. He visited on 28 March 2018 to sample tissues from shark jaws and vertebrae.
Mike's research will undertake high-resolution retrospective genomic analyses using DNA extracted from contemporary and archival Tiger Shark, Greynurse Shark, Mako Shark, and White Shark skeletal material held in museum and trophy collections around the world.
Image: Amanda Hay© Australian Museum
Professor Mike Bennett
Dr Javad Ghasemzadeh is Assistant Professor at the Department of Fisheries, Chahabar Maritime University, Iran.
He visited for three days during the week of 10 September, 2018.
Javad's area of expertise is the family Mugilidae, the mullets. During his visit he examined numerous specimens from the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Javad Ghasemzadeh
Dr Chris Goatley (left) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England.
He visited on 7 May to discuss potential areas of collaboration with Joseph Dibattista (right). Mark McGrouther, the fish collection manager, joined the discussion to clarify the Australian Museum's position on accepting fishes collected during potential research programs.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Chris Goatley
Richard Grainger is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, studying the foraging ecology of white sharks in NSW, in collaboration with the NSW DPI.
As part of this project he is conducting diet assessments using stomach contents analysis.
Richard visited the Australian Museum from 4 - 6 July to examine bones and otoliths in the ichthyology collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Richard Grainger
Dr Hisashi Imamura works in the Faculty of Fisheries Sciences at Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Japan. He visited from the 11 to 15 June 2018. During his stay he examined many specimens of flatheads from the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Hisashi Imamura
Dr Graham Short, Holiday Johnson, and Dr Healy Hamilton. Graham is a regular visitor to the Australian Museum. He is a Research Associate at the Californian Academy of Sciences and works on Pygmy Seahorses. Healy is Chief Scientist & Vice President of Conservation Science at NatureServe. Graham, Holiday and Healy stopped at the Australian Museum on their way to Lord Howe Island where they were conducting fieldwork.
Image: Amanda Hay© Australian Museum
Dr Graham Short, Holiday Johnson, and Dr Healy Hamilton.
Dr Tony Miskiewicz is an Australian larval fish expert, being co-author of the book, Larvae of Temperate Australian FIshes.
He works as an Environment Project Officer in the Environment and Health Division of Wollongong City Council.
Tony has visited many times over the years to examine specimens in the larval fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Tony Miskiewicz
Dr Fanny de Busserolles works at the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland.
She visited on 15 and 16 January to examine specimens of Discfish (Diretmus) and discuss lanternfish (Myctophidae) identifications with John Paxton. During her visit Fanny donated specimens of deepsea fishes recently collected in the south-eastern Indian Ocean.
Image: Amanda Hay© Australian Museum
Dr Fanny de Busserolles
Dr Barry Russell visited the Australian Museum for two days to further his work on the fishes of Francis Castelnau.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Barry Russell
Yato Takuji is affiliated with Kochi University. His research focuses on the gurnard fishes (Family Triglidae).
During his visit from 16 - 24 March, he examined many type specimens of triglids and non-types of the genera Lepidotrigla and Pterygotrigla.
Prior to his arrival at the Australian Museum, Yato examined fishes at Museum Victoria for a week.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Yato Takuji
Dr Peter Unmack visited on 22 May 2018 to process fishes that he collected. All specimens will be registered and stored in the ichthyology collection. Peter is a Research Fellow that the University of Canberra. He has conducted extensive freshwater fieldwork over the years.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Peter Unmack
Dr Ruzena Gregorova (left) with Senior Fellow, John Paxton in the Fish Section office, 23 January 2017. Dr Ruzena Gregorova is head of the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic. During her visit she examined specimens of roughies and lanternfishes. Ruzena also visited the palaeontology and mineralogy collections.
Image: Sally Reader© Australian Museum
Dr Ruzena Gregorova
Dr Michael Hammer is the Curator of Fishes at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
During his visit, from 8-12 December, he examined recently-collected specimens of Glossogobius as well as many preserved specimens from the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Michael Hammer
Harutaka Hata has almost finished the first year of his doctoral research at the Kagoshima University Museum where he is working on herrings (Clupeidae) and anchovies (Engraulidae). He visited for 5 days during the week of 13 March 2017.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Harutaka Hata
Wouter Holleman is a Research Associate at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (formerly the JLB Smith Institute).
He visited from 18-20 October 2017.
During his visit Wouter examined specimens of Helcogramma and Springeratus from the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Wouter Holleman
Eliza Belle Matthews is a 3rd year Marine Science and Management student at Southern Cross University, Lismore, New South Wales.
She is working full-time for 8 weeks on an internship program.
Her duties thus far have included handling incoming and outgoing specimen loans, databasing and labelling.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Eliza Belle Matthews
Dr Hiroyuki Motomura (dark blue shirt, standing in photo), and 7 of his students from the Kagoshima University Museum examined many specimens in the fish collection. Hiro has visited on a number of previous occasions. He is an Australian Museum Research Associate and world expert on the scorpionfishes. The students and their taxa of research are as follows:
Ayumi Bandai (back, centre) - Mullidae (goatfishes), Byeol Jeong (red shirt) - Soleidae (soles), Satokuni Tashiro (black shirt, seated) - Tripterygiidae (triple fins), Sirikanya Chungthanawong (back right) - Tetrarogidae (wasp fishes), Tomohiro Yoshida (blue shirt)- Apogonidae (cardinal fishes), Tomoki Inaba (striped shirt) - Synanceiidae, Inimicus (stinger fishes), Yoshino Fukui (back, second from right) - Labridae (wrasses)
Prior to their visit to the Australian Museum they examined fish specimens at the Western Australian Museum. After leaving the Australian Museum 5 students travelled to Brisbane to work at the Queensland Museum and two went to Darwin to work at the Northern Territory Museum.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australia Museum
Dr Hiroyuki Motomura and students
Dr Naohide Nakayama is the Project-based Assistant Professor at the Kyoto University Museum. He is studying the taxonomy of rattail fishes (family Macrouridae).
During his stay of one week, starting 21 August 2017, he examined specimens of Coelorinchus from Australian waters.
Prior to arriving at the Australian Museum, he spent a week at both the Northern Territory Museum, Darwin and the Australian National Fish Collection, Hobart.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Naohide Nakayama
Rohan Pett is an Australian Museum Reseach Associate.
He visited on October 5 and 10 to examine historic specimens collected by Francis Day.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Rohan Pett
Dr Graham Short is a Research Associate at the Californian Academy of Sciences. He visited for 4 days during February 2017, during which time he examined and photographed specimes of seahorse and pipehorse from the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Graham Short
Andrew Stewart is the Ichthyology Collection Manager at Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington.
He had just finished taking part in a research cruise on the Investigator. The ship had berthed in Sydney, so Andrew took the opportunity to visit the Australian Museum and donate a collection of deepsea fish specimens that were collected during the voyage.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Andrew Stewart
Dr Christine Thacker is the curator of fishes at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
During her visit on 27 February 2017, she examined specimens of several genera of native Australian freshwater gudgeons, including Hypseleotris, Philypnodon, and Mogurnda.
She photographed specimens for use in morphometric analysis as part of a wide scale evolutionary study of gudgeon phylogeny and evolution.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Christine Thacker
Dr Peter Unmack (left) is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra. Karl Moy (right) is his Masters student.
Over the years, Peter has conducted extensive freshwater fieldwork. During their visit from 28 to 30 August, Peter and Karl sorted and identified many specimens that they collected. The specimens will soon be registered into the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Peter Unmack and Karl Moy
Deborah Bowden visited on 16 November 2016. She is currently doing a PhD at the University of Queensland where her reseach deals with odontaspid sharks. As part of her research, Deb is reviewing the phylogenomics and morphometrics of the sandtiger sharks (Greynurse Shark, Smalltooth Sand Tiger and Bigeye Sand Tiger).
During her visit, Deb took photographs and measurements of the holotype of Odontaspis herbstii (AMS IB.2136); this species is now known as O. ferox. These measurements will be compared to those of Greynurse Sharks in an effort to better understand relationships within the odontaspid family and broader Lamniform order.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Deborah Bowden
Dr Javad Ghasemzadeh is Assistant Professor at the Department of Fisheries, Chahabar Maritime University, Iran. His main field of research is on the family Mugilidae, the mullets. Javad worked at the museum on a number of research projects from late July to September.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Javad Ghasemzadeh
Dr Michael Hammer in the ichthyology lab, 11 February 2016. During his visit, Michael examined specimens of Rainbowfishes from the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Michael Hammer
John Pogonoski works at the Australian National Fish Collection, CSIRO, Hobart. During his visit John examined specimens of moray and conger eels in the fish collection. He visited from 13 to 17 October, 2017.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
John Pogonoski
Agathe Ribereau-Gayon visited on 16 September 2016. She is currently doing a PhD at University College London (UK) where her research deals with Forensic Anthropology. As part of her research she analyses the scavenging patterns of marine fauna on human victims submerged in marine environments.
So far, she has been able to identify the presence of numerous cookiecutter shark (Isistius spp.) bitemarks on the bodies of victims. This shows that cookiecutter sharks have a significant impact on the degradation of the corpses, something that may have been previously underestimated in Forensic Anthropology and Pathology.
Agathe is now interested in furthering these findings by documenting the dimensions of the mouths of cookiecutter shark specimens in order to look for any statistical match with the dimensions of the bitemarks.
During her visit, Agathe took photographs and collected macroscopic measurements of specimens of Isistius brasiliensis and I. plutodus, as well as species of the so-called ‘dwarf sharks’, including Squaliolus aliae, Squaliolus laticaudus and Euprotomicrus bispinatus.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Agathe Ribereau-Gayon
Dr Clive Roberts is the Curator of Fishes at Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington.
He visited on 22 and 23 September to examine specimens of Hypoplectrodes in the fish collection and to attend the Whitley Awards evening during which he and colleagues Andrew Stewart and Carl Struthers were presented with the prestigious Royal Zoological Society of NSW Whitley Medal for their four volume book, The Fishes of New Zealand
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Clive Roberts
Stuart Sexton visited for three weeks in January 2016. He is working on a PhD through Flinders University, in conjunction with the South Australian Research and Development Institute. His research is investigating the effects of habitat conditions on the growth and survivorship of sardine larvae off the east coast.
Stuart is accessing larval fish specimens held in the Australian Museum Ichthyology Collection that were collected during surveys undertaken up to 30 years ago. Each larva is measured and using length as a proxy for age, the relationship between environmental conditions and larval age can be estimated enabling us to better understand what conditions promote high levels of survivorship.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Stuart Sexton
Andrew Stewart is the Ichthyology Collection Manager at Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington.
Andrew visited for the week beginning 19 September to examine specimens of Microstoma and Nansenia in the fish collection. During his stay, he and colleagues Dr Clive Roberts and Carl Struthers were presented with the prestigious Royal Zoological Society of NSW Whitley Medal for their four volume book, The Fishes of New Zealand.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Andrew Stewart
Carl Struthers works in the Fish Department at Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington.
He visited for the week beginning 19 September to examine specimens of Ocean Perch, Helicolenus and beardies in the fish collection.
During his stay, he and colleagues Dr Clive Roberts and Andrew Stewart were presented with the prestigious Royal Zoological Society of NSW Whitley Medal for their four volume book, The Fishes of New Zealand.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Carl Struthers
E-Kai (lemon) Tea is an under-graduate student at the University of Sydney. He is working with Australian Museum Research Associate Dr Anthony Gill on fish taxonomy at the Macleay Museum. E-kai is currently working on the descriptions of several new species of Cirrhlabrus (wrasse) and Synchiropus (dragonet) as well as evaluating the phylogenetic relationships of the species within these genera.
Image: Anthony Gill© Australian Museum
E-Kai (lemon) Tea
Dr Peter Unmack and Carson Creagh in the fish lab, 11 February 2016. Peter is a Research Fellow that the University of Canberra. He has conducted extensive freshwater fieldwork over the years. During this visit he and Carson unpacked many of the fishes he collected. The specimens were transferred from formalin to ethanol and sorted by species. They are now jarred separately and await registration into the ichthyology collection.
Peter visited from 9-11 February; Carson assisted him for two days.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Peter Unmack and Carson Creagh
Australian Museum Research Associate Ken Graham and CSIRO researchers Sharon Hook and Alan Williams teamed up to prepare for an exciting expedition to explore the deep sea environments in the Great Australian Bight.
Scientists on board the RV Investigator will be learning about the geology of submarine canyons, volcanoes, and hydrocarbon seeps, as well as the animals that live there. Specimens will be collected for museum collections, so we can learn about the types of animals that live in the deep sea, and tissue collections will be made so that we can better understand the adaptations that allow animals to survive in these environments.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Ken Graham, Dr. Sharon Hook and Dr. Alan Williams
Joanna Browne recently visited the lab on behalf of Marianne Nyegaard, a PhD candidate at Murdoch University in Western Australia. Marianne studies ocean sunfish (genus Mola) in the waters off Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. She mainly looks at population genetics and migrations, but is also interested in historical species identification in the context of genetic analysis. Museum collections provide an important background to the analysis and identification of new material, which Marianne mainly obtains through collaboration with the fishing industry.
Joanna has just had her PhD thesis, "Parasites of jellyfish in eastern Australia", accepted. Her thesis was undertaken through Griffith University and Museum Victoria. She is one of the first researchers to study jellyfish parasites in Australia and investigated relationships between jellyfish (including the blue blubber Catostylus mosaicus, upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea, hydromedusae and ctenophores) and digenean trematodes, cestodes, hyperiid amphipods, a parasitic anemone, and a sphaeromatid isopod, using molecular and ecological techniques. Joanna is currently based in Western Australia and is hoping to continue researching these fascinating associations.
Due to the trophic link between sunfish and jellyfish, Joanna and Marianne are currently looking at collaborative research on the parasites occurring in both jellies and sunfish, using molecular techniques.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Joanna Browne
Dr Kevin Conway is an Assistant Professor of Ichthyology at Texas A&M University. He works on the taxonomy and systematics of clingfishes (Family Gobiesocidae).
During his visit from 17-24 February, he examined specimens in the Ichthyology collection. He also collected, photographed and took tissue samples from fresh clingfish specimens collected in the Sydney and Newcastle regions.
After leaving the Austrailan Museum his clingfish research took him to New Zealand.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Kevin Conway
Aaron Davis is a Research Officer at James Cook University, Queensland. He works on the taxonomy and evolution of terpontid grunters and allied families.
During his visit (12-13 October 2015), Aaron collected information on aspects of morphology (dentition and intestine structure) to examine the role of trophic ecology in shaping evolutionary trajectories of several related marine and freshwater fish families.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Aaron Davis
Humberto Ferrón Jiménez is studying for his PhD on the paleoecology of early and basal vertebrates, based at the University of Valencia, Spain.
His current research involves understanding the relationship between squamation (denticles/'scales') and ecology of sharks in order to make inferences about the lifestyles of both extinct and living groups with similar squamation. These groups are often poorly studied from an ecological perspective. He is also compiling data on several shark species to be used in an updated atlas of squamation.
His project received funding support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CGL2014-52662-P).
Humberto visited for 2 weeks in November - December, 2015.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Humberto Ferrón Jiménez
Jennifer Freer is studying for her PhD on the evolutionary ecology of lanternfishes (Family Myctophidae), based at the Univeristy of Bristol, UK.
Her research involves understanding the mechanisms that have promoted myctophid diversification and also how their distributions may be affected by future climate change.
During Jennifer's visit she had discussions with Drs John Paxton and Jan Poulsen.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Jennifer Freer
Dr Javad Ghasemzadeh is Assistant Professor at the Department of Fisheries, Chahabar Maritime University, Iran. He is a leading researcher on the family Mugilidae, the mullets. Javad visited from 4 - 9 September 2015.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Javad Ghasemzadeh
Dr Tony Gill, Research Associate and regular visitor to the Fish Section, visited for the first time this year on 5 February. During his visit he examined specimens of dottybacks, a group for which Tony is a world expert.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Tony Gill
Dr Martin Gomon visited from 18 to 22 May, 2015 to continue his research on labrid fishes. He examined many specimens of Choerodon from the collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Martin Gomon
Dr Michael Hammer is the Curator of Fishes at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Michael Hammer
Dr Eri Katayama visited from 5 to 8 May, 2015. She works at at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo. During her stay Eri examined specimens in the family Creediidae (the Sandburrowers and Tommyfishes).
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Eri Katayama
Dr Mao-Ying Lee works at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. He is an expert on the taxonomy of the tongue soles, family Cynoglossidae. During his visit, from 8 to 11 September 2015, he examined specimens in the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Mao-Ying Lee
Clayton Manning is studying for his MSc on the feeding behaviours and diets of syngnathids (Family Syngnathidae), based at the University of British Columbia, Canada, as a member of the marine conservation group Project Seahorse.
His research involves understanding how habitat characteristics dictate the foraging behaviours and diets of syngnathids. He will be using White's seahorse, Hippocampus whitei, in Port Stephens, as a case-study.
During his visit from 23 - 25 September 2015, Clayton examined many specimens from the fish collection.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Clayton Manning
Drs Lindsay Marshall and Alan Williams (artist and scientist respectively), visited on 26 and 27 August to work with John on a paper on lanternfishes (family Myctophidae).
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Drs Lindsay Marshall and Alan Williams
Dr Tony Miskiewicz examining a larval fish in the ichthyology collection, 11 March 2015.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Tony Miskiewicz
Drs Einar Neilsen and Julian Pepperell visited many fishing clubs and other institutions on the New South Wales coast to take samples from tiger shark jaws as part of their genetic research.
Einar is the Research Coordinator of the Section for Marine Living Resources, National Institute of Aquatic Resources at the Technical University of Denmark.
Julian is a freelance researcher and writer with extensive knowledge of the fisheries and game fishing industries.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Drs Einar Neilsen and Julian Pepperell
John Pogonoski (left) and Jan Poulsen examining a bobtail snipe eel, 6 March 2015.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
John Pogonoski (left) and Jan Poulsen
Dr Barry Russell (ex. Northern Territory Museum) working on lizardfishes (family Synodontidae) in the the ichthyology visitor lab, 23 April 2015. Barry visited from 13 April to 24 April 2015.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Barry Russell
Anthony Seward has just completed an Honours degree at the University of New South Wales and has begun a Masters at Macquarie University.
His current research involves the diversity and distribution of larval pleuronectids in the south-east region of Australia, to make inferences about their distribution across water masses and the value of larval identification beyond the family level. He is also compiling a larval identification index for several pleuronectid genera and species for the south-east region.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Anthony Seward
Scott Tuason (right) and Tony Gill in the fish lab, 18 August 2015. Scott is working on a book about blackwater diving. 'Blackwater diving' is scuba diving at night over very deep water. This mode of diving allows the diver to see many unusual fishes that live in the pelagic zone. Scott does most of his blackwater diving in the Philippines but his early diving was in Hawaii. More information on Scott.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Scott Tuason (right) and Tony Gill
Dr Franz Uiblein (right) visited on 26 and 27 March 2015, to continue his research on goatfishes. During his visit he examined specimens of Mulloidichthys and Upeneus from the ichthyology collection.
Image: Jan Poulsen© Australian Museum
Dr Franz Uiblein
Claire Mahendradatta, Daniel Wang, Anna Hespe-Poulos and Joanne Holman. University of Technology students topping up jars in the fish collection with fresh 70% ethanol. From front to back, Claire Mahendradatta, Daniel Wang, Anna Hespe-Poulos and Joanne Holman. The students have generously given their time to help overcome one of the ongoing problems with wet collections - evaporation from jars.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Claire Mahendradatta, Daniel Wang, Anna Hespe-Poulos and Joanne Holman.
Dr William White is the Senior Curator at the Australian National Fish Collection at CSIRO, Hobart, Tasmania.
He visited on 19 November to examine sharks and rays in the fish collection that were collected in Papua New Guinea.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr William White
Dr Gerry Allen is a world-renowned ichthyologist who has published many books and papers. He worked in the fish collection during the week of 3 November 2014. The focus of his research was the Epaulette Sharks in the genus Hemiscyllium.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Gerry Allen
Sue and Don Cotterill with Ichthyology Collection Manager Mark McGrouther, 5 May 2014. The jar Mark is holding contains a larval flounder that was donated to the Australian Museum by Sue and Don.
Image: Annette Townsend© Annette Townsend
Sue and Don Cotterill
Dr Javad Ghasemzadeh is an expert on the taxonomy of mullets. During his visit he examined fish specimens, including one mullet sent to him from the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Javad Ghasemzadeh
Dr Tony Gill is a regular Fish Section visitor. He works at the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney. During his visit on 17 March, Tony examined dottyback fishes from the collection and specimens of a fish family previously unrecorded from Australia.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Tony Gill
Jacqueline Gribbin and Rex Mitchell's visit aimed to gather information about Gilbert Whitley's historic fish printing blocks. She and Rex spent the day working through Whitley literature. They will also spend time in the Australian Museum Archives.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Jacqueline Gribbin and Rex Mitchell
Dr Charlie Huveneers visited on 2 May, 2014. He is based at the School of Biological Sciences at Flinders University, where he leads the Southern Shark Ecology Group. One of his current project aims to assess trends in the population size of White Sharks since protection in the late 1990s.
During his visit, Charlie took small tissue samples from 3 White Shark jaws and has previously obtained genetic samples from other White Shark specimens within the collection.
The project is being undertaken with the collaboration of the CNRS (French research institute), CSIRO and the Fox Shark Research Foundation. Funding is being provided by Save our Seas Foundation and Sea World Research and Rescue Foundation.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Charlie Huveneers
Dr Kazuo Inaba and Dr Kogiku Shiba work at the Shimoda Marine Research Centre, University of Tsukuba, Japan. They travelled to Australia to attend a conference in Newcastle and beforehand had a short visit to the Australian Museum to investigate the collection holdings of flatfishes.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Kazuo Inaba and Dr Kogiku Shiba
Dr Patricia Kailola visited on 3 April 2014. During her stay she examined the paratype of the pipefish, Microphis cruentatus. The image shows Tricia, left, talking with Gina Cooke about Fijian blennies.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Patricia Kailola
Alyssa Kanyasi is doing an Honours degree at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her research involves examining the age and growh of Shortfin Makos based on vertebral analysis.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Alyssa Kanyasi
Dr Helen Larson, formerly a research scientist at the Northern Territory Museum, was awarded an AMRI Visiting Research Fellowship for her project entitled “Exploration of gobioid type specimens". She visited for the month of November 2014.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Dr Helen Larson
Franz and Daisy Lidz visited the museum to research a feature story on Mr Blobby that he is writing for the Smithsonian Magazine.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
Franz and Daisy Lidz
Matthew (Yuen Ho) Ma is studying for a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience at Sydney University. He is interested in marine biology and took the opportunity to work for the week of 30 June 2014 as part of his research component of the professional experience program.
Image: Mark McGrouther© Australian Museum
