I’m a Proper Scientist Now!
Ages ago (November 2007 to be precise) I found a fish on a boat that I recognised as an anglerfish but couldn’t immediately identify. I took some photos then froze it and took it back to Stanley for identification. When I showed it to people no-one knew what it was. This was surprising to me as it was only my second boat and I’d apparently found something new. I tried identifying it but didn’t get very far and my fish languished in formalehyde for several months.
I got the paper written and sent to a journal and got the reviewers’ comments in my last week of my last contract. I was told that my fish, by now nicknamed ‘Angie’ (the anglerfish), was an important specimen and should be in an internationally recognised collection, so I contacted the Natural History Museum to see if they wanted her (the genus Himantolophus has parasitic males so anything over about 7 cm can be pretty confidently identified as a female without the need for dissection) and they did so I arranged for her to be sent overseas.
I returned to work for my next contract with the corrections to the paper still to be made. It was then I realised that one correction required the inspection of my fish, now in the NHM. Damn! So, before heading home for Christmas I arranged to visit my fish and work on her at the museum. I got to work in the Darwin Centre for an hour or two (what I needed didn’t take that long) which was really exciting. Then I was able to re-submit my paper and I finally got it published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association 2 – Biodiversity Records. This is a free online journal so you are all able to read my first attempt at producing a scientific journal article at http://www.mba.ac.uk/jmba/jmba2biodiversityrecords.php?6277.
Oh, by now you must be dying to see my fish. She’s quite beautiful (in my opinion). Preservation hasn’t helped her looks but fresh she was quite amazing. 
Then I was given the name of an expert who I could contact to help with the identification. He gave me some advice and I identified the fish as a Himantolophus appelii. It hadn’t been reported this far south before, giving me the opportunity to write a short article for publication to tell anyone interested that the species was found further south than previously thought.
I got the paper written and sent to a journal and got the reviewers’ comments in my last week of my last contract. I was told that my fish, by now nicknamed ‘Angie’ (the anglerfish), was an important specimen and should be in an internationally recognised collection, so I contacted the Natural History Museum to see if they wanted her (the genus Himantolophus has parasitic males so anything over about 7 cm can be pretty confidently identified as a female without the need for dissection) and they did so I arranged for her to be sent overseas.
I returned to work for my next contract with the corrections to the paper still to be made. It was then I realised that one correction required the inspection of my fish, now in the NHM. Damn! So, before heading home for Christmas I arranged to visit my fish and work on her at the museum. I got to work in the Darwin Centre for an hour or two (what I needed didn’t take that long) which was really exciting. Then I was able to re-submit my paper and I finally got it published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association 2 – Biodiversity Records. This is a free online journal so you are all able to read my first attempt at producing a scientific journal article at http://www.mba.ac.uk/jmba/jmba2biodiversityrecords.php?6277.
My fish is now sat in the Natural History Museum in London and will soon have a label identifying me as the donor which is really amazing. My fish in the same place as specimens caught on historic expeditions and by historic people. Wow!
Oh, by now you must be dying to see my fish. She’s quite beautiful (in my opinion). Preservation hasn’t helped her looks but fresh she was quite amazing.
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