Director: Eric B. Taylor (604) 822-9152

Curator Emeritus: J. Donald McPhail (604) 822-0216

Curatorial Assistant: Chris Stinson (604) 822-4803.

Address: Rm. 1361, BioSciences Building, Department of Zoology,

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CANADA V6T 1Z4

For a map, click HERE.

The UBC Fish Museum started in the the mid-1940's with collections donated by Dr. C. MacLean Fraser, first head of the Department of Zoology at UBC. The first cataloguing system was initiated in 1945 and collections increased such that by 1953 the collection had 973 entries representing over 1400 specimens. Since those early beginnings, the collection has expanded dramatically to include of alcohol-stored whole fishes (approximately 800,000 specimens), cleared and stained specimens (to reveal internal bony structure), skeletal preparations, x-ray images, and some fossil fishes. The marine fish collections are largely from the northeastern Pacific (including extensive collections from the Aleutian Peninsula), the Malay Archipelago, Mexico, and the Galapagos. The freshwater holdings include extensive collections from northwestern North America, Panama, and the Amazon Basin. The UBC Fish Collection was the first one (of 26 currently) to have all its records deposited in FISHBASE and accessable via the internet!

The collection also includes extensive tissue and DNA archives. There are over 5,000 individual DNA samples of mostly freshwater fishes from northwestern North America, many of which are paired with whole specimen collections. Together, these whole animal and DNA collections are used by members of the Native Fishes Research Group at UBC and visitors in various studies of fish systematics, taxonomy, conservation biology, and evolutionary genetics. They will all soon have a new home in the Biodiversity Research Centre and Beaty Museum of Biodiversity at UBC.

At present, there is no provision for the loaning of specimens from the museum. Individual researchers, however, are welcome to visit the museum to examine and collect data from the collection. The collection has two adjacent rooms that can be used to examine specimens.

Search the UBC Fish Museum database: (NEW PROCEDURE)

The UBC fish collection was the FIRST one to be deposited and indexed by FISHBASE. You can search the UBC Fish Collection using FISHBASE by clicking HERE. Once on the FISHBASE page, enter "UBC" (without the quotes) in the "by Station No." box and any other filters you wish (e.g., type genus and species names in the "Name used in collection" box) and hit the "Search" button.

Field Key to BC Freshwater Fishes

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Last updated: March 2009