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Home/New Orleans/Tulane’s Fish Collection
fish specimines in a jar at Tulane's collection

Tulane’s Fish Collection

Tulane’s collection of fish, preserved in jars and stacked on shelves, is perhaps the largest of any in the world. University biology professor Royal D. Suttkus began gathering and researching the fish specimens in the 1950’s, and today the lab contains more than eight million fish.

jars containing small fish in Tulane's collection
Jars packed with tiny fish are part of the Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute

Millions of fish and thousands of species

Today, Tulane’s fish collection is managed by Dr. Henry Bart, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. He explains that the institute has kept meticulous records since its beginnings more than 70 years ago. And the eight million plus fish that are stored at the Belle Chase, Louisiana facility represent 2,500 different species. But that is still only a drop in the bucket of the estimated 40,000 species that inhabit the earth. Tulane’s focus is primarily on fish that live in the Gulf of Mexico region and the rivers that feed into it.

something very fishy in the old ammunition bunker

The fish collection is stored in what seems like a very unlikely location. An old ammunition bunker used by the Navy during World War Two is filled with dozens of rows of metal shelves that reach almost to the ceiling. And those shelves contain the glass jars full of fish specimens.

white concrete bunker  with stairs and doorway with earth fill on the side
World War II bunker that houses Tulane’s fish collection

Tulane’s fish collection featured on TV

Watch this Heart of Louisiana feature on the 8 million fish collection at Tulane University

The focus of tulane’s fish collection is research

The Tulane Biodiversity Institute provides fish specimens for researchers who want to get a closer look at species they are studying. The facility is not set up for tours. But Institute Director Henry Bart points out some of the more fascinating fish, the interesting, the odd, the rare and the extinct in videos below.

fish uses jellyfish for cover

Spotted fish that like to hangs out with jellyfish

something kin to a puffer

Jars of birrfish act like puffers to ward off prey

tiny gulf shark is one of a kind

Tiny pocket shark is a recent and rare find in the Gulf of Mexico

Looks like a bat and walks on the bottom

Bat fish has legs to walk on the water bottom.

A once common river fish is now extinct

An extinct fish is part of Tulane’s collection of fish specimens

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        Written by:
        Dave McNamara
        Published on:
        February 9, 2023
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        Categories: Featured, New Orleans

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