Capacity Building for Fish Taxonomy in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Southeast Asia, including the Indo-Malayan Archipelago, is known as the region with the highest marine fish diversity in the world, with about 3,000 shorefish species (Carpenter and Springer 2005). Although this region has been studied by ichthyologists for more than 200 years (e.g., Pieter Bleeker, Max Weber, Lieven F. de Beaufort, John E. Randall, and Gerald R. Allen), many new fish are still being reported (Eschmeyer and Fricke 2011). When researching the history of ichthyology in the region, it became clear that taxonomic studies on fish were done primarily by ichthyologists from other regions, including Europe, the United States, and Japan. There are various reasons why fish taxonomy has not been conducted by local scientists. It appears that impediments to local fish taxonomy resulted from inadequate resources for fish taxonomy including few ichthyologists, few fish collections, and limited references including a lack of field guides to local fish. When considering the importance of sustaining biodiversity in this region, there is little doubt that capacity building for taxonomy should be a priority to understand and conserve the biodiversity of the region.