Records of the Western Australian Museum 17:119-123 (1995). 
Short communication 
New records of fishes for the Rowley Shoals and Scott/Seringapatam Reefs, 
off north-western Australia 
J.B. Hutchins', D.McB. Williams 2 , S.J. Newman 2 , M. Cappo 2 , and P. Speare 2 
'Western Australian Museum, Francis Street, Perth, Western Australia 6000 
Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB No 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810 
The Rowley Shoals and Scott/Seringapatam 
Reefs are located off the north-western coastline of 
Western Australia. Staff of the Western Australian 
Museum have made several collecting trips to 
these areas (Berry 1986). Fish lists from these 
surveys have been published in Allen and Russell 
(1986) and Allen (1993) — these report a total of 688 
species for the two areas. 
In September/October, 1993, members of the 
Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) 
visited this region to conduct visual surveys of its 
reef fishes as part of their investigations on the 
coral associated fauna of northern Australia. The 
senior author was invited to participate in this 
study because of the Western Australian Museum's 
expertise in the region. Over a period of 20 days, 
visual surveys were made at 9-10 sites on each of 
the three atolls of the Rowley Shoals, 30 sites on 
South Scott Reef, 20 on North Scott Reef, and 11 on 
Seringapatam Reef (a full report of this study is in 
preparation). Two survey teams took part, each 
consisting of two SCUBA-equipped divers and a 
standby diver/boatperson. Each dive was usually 
45 minutes long, and involved swimming along a 
transect that crossed from the shallowest to the 
deepest parts of the dive (the maximum depth 
worked was 20 m). Sites both inside and outside 
the lagoons and on the outer slopes were surveyed. 
In addition, several deeper water collections were 
made with handlines, droplines, and rod and reel. 
A total of 445 species were recorded, of which 99 
are new records for the Scott/Seringapatam reefs, 
39 are new for the Rowley Shoals, and 23 are new 
records common to both areas. Of this total of 161 
new records, 81 have not been recorded from 
either location before, and three species are new 
records for Australia. The purpose of this paper is 
to report these new additions. 
The list presented below follows the format 
utilised by Allen (1993) in his summary of the fish 
fauna of the two areas. Numerous species with 
questionable identities were also recorded during 
the study; however, only those positively identified 
have been included. As anticipated by Allen (1993), 
these additional surveys suggest a more uniform 
distribution of species among these reefs than the 
earlier study. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
We would like to thank Suzanne Williams and 
the crew of the RV Lady Basten for their assistance. 
We are also grateful for comments made by G.R. 
Allen on an early draft of the fish list. 
REFERENCES 
Alien, G.R. (1993). Part 7. Fishes of Ashmore Reef and 
Cartier Island. In P.F. Berry, (ed.). Marine faunal 
surveys of Ashmore Reef and Cartier Island, north¬ 
western Australia. Records of the Western Australian 
Museum Supplement 44: 67-91. 
Allen, G.R. and Russell, B.C. (1986). Part 7. Fishes. In 
P.F. Berry, (ed.). Faunal surveys of the Rowley Shoals, 
Scott Reef and Seringapatam Reef, north-western 
Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 
Supplement 25: 75-103. 
Berry, P.F. (ed.) (1986). Faunal surveys of the Rowley 
Shoals, Scott Reef and Seringapatam Reef. Records of 
the Western Australian Museum Supplement 25: 1-106. 
List of New Fish Records 
Key to symbols: 
c = collected and retained (at WAM) 
r = collected but not retained 
x = visual record 
* = new record for Australia 
Scott/ Rowley 
Seringapatam Shoals 
CARCHARHINIDAE 
Carcharhinus albimarginatus (Riippell, 1837) r x 
MOBULIDAE 
Manta biroslris (Walbaum, 1792) x 
