The Fish Department - Fieldwork
Vanuatu - northern half, 1997
In April/May 1997, Dianne Bray and Mark McGrouther of the Australian Museum, joined Jeff Williams and David Smith from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and Randy Mooi of the Milwaukee Public Museum, on a five week trip to survey the fishes of the northern part of Vanuatu. Just like the trip conducted in 1996, we lived aboard the Vanuatu Fisheries vessel, MV "Lewia", ably captained by Kari Cole.
We aimed to conduct the trip along the same lines as the one run a year before. We wanted to collect as many species of fishes, from as many different habitats as weather and time would allow. Prior to this trip, the fish fauna of Vanuatu's northern coral reefs had been poorly surveyed. The majority of specimens were collected by scuba diving in water depths ranging from 1 to 30 metres. Part of this unique collection is now held in the Australian Museum's extensive Fish Collection.
