A Survey of the Marine Fishes of Fiji

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The purpose of this project is to conduct an intensive two-year sampling program of the fishes of Fiji. Data from this project will be combined with information from previous collections to establish a comprehensive list of the species present and provide information on the habitats of the species and characteristics of the biological communities. Although Fiji lies within the region supporting the most diverse coral-reef fish fauna in the world, its fishes are not well known and estimates of the diversity of fishes inhabiting the Fiji Islands are grossly underestimated.Collecting efforts will concentrate on reef and shore fishes, and include sampling in reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, mud flats, and rocky and sandy shores. In addition to making collections using SCUBA at depths of 30 meters or less, a pilot sampling of fishes will be conducted to a depth of 120 meters using closed circuit rebreather technology. Specimens will be photographed in the field and returned to the University of Hawaii for identification.The fish specimens collected will be available for future systematic and biogeographic studies, and will provide information on biodiversity, habitat specificity, and characteristics of Indo-Pacific marine communities. An interactive, searchable database system on the fishes of Fiji will be developed. The database will contain basic taxonomic data for each taxon (authorship, location of type specimen, synonyms), major references for identification, diagnostic characteristics, distributional information, photographs, and listings of major museum holdings of specimens from Fiji. A book on the fishes of Fiji is planned as a follow-up project.