268 
THE CORAL TRIANGLE: HEARST BIODIVERSITY EXPEDITION 
Figure 4. The otter trawl on deek. 
national d’Histoire nature lie in Paris: they offer a treasure-trove of researeh material for those will¬ 
ing to dig through the many dmms of formalin-preserved fishes. 
In September 1995 the Taiwan fishery vessel Fishery Researcher I eondueted a short survey 
off the east eoast of Luzon using a large otter trawl and a 2-m ORI ring net. Seven deep bottom 
hauls were made using the otter trawl at depths from 174 m to 1053 m, and one shallow haul made 
in 40 m. Midwater hauls were made between the surfaee and about 1550 m, four using the otter 
trawl and two using the ORI ring net. About 300 speeies were identified from this 1995 survey, a 
number far exeeeding what the HEPD expedition obtained, mostly owing to the larger eatehes of 
midwater fishes and perhaps the larger trawl used by the Fishery Researcher I. The fish eollections 
were split among various institutions, ineluding the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatie 
Resources, the Australian Museum, the Peabody Museum of Yale University, the Taiwan Fisheries 
Research Institute in Kaohsung, and the California Academy of Sciences. Two subsequent cruises 
sponsored by the Taiwanese government were made in the early part of 2000, with the collections 
deposited in the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. 
The extent to which the Chinese have surveyed the South China Sea is unknown to us, but is 
likely to be substantial. Randall and Lim (2000) recorded 3365 species of marine fishes from the 
South China Sea. That number continues to grow as more collecting continues, often in areas hith¬ 
erto untouched, and as new, more-refined techniques tease out previously imperceptible taxa. Ran¬ 
dall and Lim acknowledge that the pelagic and deep-sea fauna has not been well studied in the 
South China Sea and that “these deep-sea habitats are. . . important areas for fiiture exploration” 
(op. cit. p. 570). 
