10 



Fishes in Museums 

 of Natural History 



Within the last fifty years interest in fishes in the United States 

 has boomed to unbelievable proportions. Fishing leads all other 

 sports by a great majority in numbers of participants— one fifth 

 of our total population, about thirty million persons of all races, 

 religions, and ages. The varied academic subjects associated 

 with fishery biology are taught in many of our best schools. 

 Fishing and all it encompasses is big business; it is an important 

 contribution to the economy of our country. Sport fishing alone 

 is a multimillion dollar industry. And this great interest in 

 fishes and fishing has not yet reached its peak. 



Throughout the United States, museums of natural history 

 attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. These 

 throngs delight in viewing, at close hand, the vast range of 

 exhibits associated with the natural sciences. Of course, the 

 greatest attractions in any museum of natural history are the 

 exhibits covering the vertebrates of the animal kingdom. Su- 

 perlative halls of birds and mammals, and huge halls of 

 paleontology which house the enormous skeletons of pre- 

 historic animals, are common in museums. Then, is it not 

 strange that despite the overwhelming popular and academic 

 interest in fishes throughout the United States and other coun- 

 tries, the majority of museum fish exhibits and fish halls, to put 

 it mildly, are a discredit to their respective institutions? 



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