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The Fish Department - Research

Greer Howarth

Greer Howarth working in the Spirit House, May 2006. Photo: M. McGrouther © Australian Museum. View larger image.

Greer Howarth joined Elizabeth Hansen, Morgan Bedford, Vanessa Valenzuela and Danielle Ord on the Vacola jar replacement project. All five staff members worked together on the huge task of replacing all the old Vacola preserving jars in the fish collection.

Vacola jars seal by clipping a metal lid over a rubber o-ring. Over time, many of the rubber o-rings had perished (making the jars very difficult to open) or worse still, had started to leach black pigment into the alcohol which stained the specimens.

Greer worked in the Spirit House for three months, beginning in April 2006. She swapped thousands of specimens out of the old Vacola jars and into new screw-finish food jars. A polyethylene plug was inserted into the neck of each jar to reduce evaporation of the alcohol.

Greer has visited the Fish Department on a number of occasions including her visit in November 2003.