This book traces the discovery of Australia’s fishes from the earliest days of taxonomy to the first part of the 20th century. It provides a unique insight into the diverse pathways by which Australia’s fish were discovered and outlines the history of early maritime explorations in Australia that collected natural history specimens. The book covers the life and work of each of the most important discoverers, and assesses their accomplishments and the limitations of their work. Discovery of Australia’s Fishes is distinctive in that a biographic approach is integrated with chronological descriptions of the discovery of the Australian fish fauna. Many of northern Australia’s fishes are found in parts of the Indian and western Pacific oceans. The book covers the work of collectors who travelled outside Australia, together with that of the British and European zoologists who received and described their collections. The account ceases at 1930, the year the first modern checklist of Australian fishes was published. 2012 Whitley Award Commendation for Historical Zoology.

The waters of the Indo-Pacific were at the centre of the global expansion of marine capture fisheries in the twentieth century, yet surprisingly little has been written about this subject from a historical perspective. This book, the first major study of the history of fishing in Asia and Oceania, presents the case-studies completed through the History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) initiative. It examines the marine environmental history and historical marine ecology of the Indo-Pacific during a period that witnessed the dramatic escalation of industrial fishing in these seas.

THE NEVER-BEFORE-TOLD STORY OF HOW THE TROUT CAME TO CALL INDIAN RIVERS ITS HOME. When the East India Company's business venture with India turned into a full-fledged occupation of the country, the British in India, apart from establishing their governance, were concerned with one more thing - how to make their surroundings here more akin to their homeland. Even as they dotted the Indian terrain with their manicured gardens, clock towers and pristine colonial structures, many among them (particularly a clutch of British anglers) increasingly felt the absence of one essential fish in Indian rivers - the trout. A Fish in Alien Streams presents the astounding story of a motley group of mavericks, adventurers and eccentric naturalists who, driven by their peculiar fixation, were obsessed with introducing the trout to India's rivers. This delightful account of an unknown slice of India's colonial past combines incredible research involving antique books, rare documents and letters of wistful longing for the trout with the minutiae of fishing and skilful planning. Spanning the Kashmir valley, Kullu, Uttarkashi, the Nilgiris, Travancore and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), this unique and incredible tale is about magnificent passions, countless failures and ultimate triumph.

This book is an up to date compendium of all information available up to 1997 in respect of the freshwater fish fauna of this region . The classification adopted is generally after Nelson's Fishes of the World (1994), Howes (1991) with inputs from Eschmeyer's Genera of Fishes (1990). For Cyprinine genera the order of an arrangement proposed by Rainborth (1991) has been adhered to. In respect of nemacheilines the arrangement proposed by Banarescu and Nalbant (1995), Kottelat (1990) have been followed. As indicated in the title the Indian region as conceived here includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mayanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka within their political boundaries. Afghanistan and other border areas excluded. All primary freshwater fishes are definitely listed and many secondary and peripheral species that visit freshwater are also included. A uniform pattern of citation is adopted. Brief salient features of all the taxa up to orders are given. Descriptive details in respect of families and genera are provided more elaborately. Synonymies include the latest valid name, first reference, type-designations and more important pertinent references to that taxa. All citations have been checked, and cross-checked with the aid of Eschmeyer's work. Species are not described but listed alphabetically with their known range of distribution, but genera are described and arranged according to their known phylogenetic and intergeneric affinities. Keys are provided and simple drawings illustrating characters where needed are given. Synonyms, notes on species, genera, nomenclatural clarifications are given as foot-notes against relevant species marked with an asterisk, but in the foot-note the same serial number alone is cited and not the full species name. Figures depicting a representative of most genera can be seen; for many genera the more common species are illustrated as plate figures. A total of 272 genera with 852 species falling under 71 families and 16 orders are dealt with in this book. A glossary of 218 technical terms with adequate illustrations and a bibliography of 649 references are given. 241 figures and 18 plates are in the book. An addenda made up to date carries brief information of one new genus, 11 new species and one new subspecies.