The University of the South Pacific Division of Marine Studies Technical Report No. 1/2010 A Checklist of the Fishes of Fiji and a Bibliography of Fijian Fish Johnson Seeto & Wayne J. Baldwin © Johnson Seeto 2010 All rights reserved No part to this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission of the authors. Design and Layout: Posa A. Skelton, BioNET-PACINET ISBN: xxx USP Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Seeto, J., Baldwin, W.J. A Checklist of the Fishes of Fiji and a Bibliography of Fijian Fishes. Division of Marine Studies Technical Report 1/2010. The University of the South Pacific. Suva, Fiji. 2010 102 p.: col. ill.; 27.9 cm A Checklist of the Fishes of Fiji and a Bibliography of Fijian Fish Johnson Seeto & Wayne J. Baldwin Division of Marine Studies School of Islands and Oceans Faculty of Science, Technology & Environment The University of the South Pacific Suva Campus Fiji Technical Report 1/2010 February, 2010 Johnson Seeto & Wayne J. Baldwin I. INTRODUCTION May,1999. IRD collected deepsea fauna from Fiji 5 years ago. The first book that described the Fijian fish fauna was written Fish identification has also been made from fish bones and by Henry W. Fowler in 1959 and it covered 560 species. Carlson archaeological evidence (Gifford, 1951; Best, 1984). Ladd (1945) (1975) wrote a checklist of 575 Fijian fish species (107 families) also listed some fossil fish from Fiji. based on collections he made with Mike Gawel, while setting up the University of the South Pacific Marine Reference collection. Fiji lies approximately between 15°S and 22°S and from 175°E to 177°W. Geographically, Rotuma is included in Fiji, although This present checklist began in 1983 following Wayne Baldwin’s Rotumans are Polynesians, whereas Fijians are predominantly attachment to study the tuna baitfish at the then Institute of Marine Melanesians, except for the Lau Group to the south-east. This is Resources in Suva, with funding from the University of Hawaii’s Sea an anomaly as Zug et al., 1988 pointed out; Rotuma and Samoan Grant Program. It was left alone for about 10 years and re-started fish have a similar affinity. There are species that are endemic to in 1996 by the senior author to include numerous new records Rotuma and Fiji. from surveys carried out by the Marine Studies Programme, the Institute of Marine Resources staff, overseas museum collecting Minerva Reef to the South of Fiji is presently claimed by Tonga trips and from other publications listing fishes from Fiji. and Fiji. Ceva-i-ra to the South-west, marks the other south- western outpost. Cikobia marks the north-east boundary. Ono-i- Myers (1991) lists 915 inshore fish species for Samoa, about 1000 lau and Vatoa mark the south-east end of Fiji. Collections in the species for New Caledonia and approximately 2000 species for Minerva Reef and Ceva-i-ra may show new affinities and possibly Papua New Guinea. To date, this Fiji list covers 2304 fish species new species because of their isolation and cooler climate. Fishers (2031 confirmed including 275 doubtful records) from 200 families are now longlining outside our EEZ e.g the deep water bluenose (192 confirmed including 8 doubtful families). There are records warehou (Centrolophidae: Hyperoglyphe antarctica) from between to genus level only; these being not identifiable or possible new Fiji and NZ. species so were put as unconfirmed unless its genus was unique. More new records are expected to be found in future surveys Many of these fish records were obtained from literature search by including new species. We are unable to authenticate all records the authors. The University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program Advisory of all the various authors but express our reservations that the fish service staff member Peter Rappa and his assistants found Fiji fish may be wrongly identified or is not from this geographical area. publications in the beginning of this study and the PIMRIS staff of USP also contributed to the literature search. We also feel that our list of Fiji fishes is an optimistic count because of the inclusion of possibly wrongly identified fishes, fishes of The Fiji Times and its column Hook Line and Sinker by Rob uncertain status, and fish identified to genus level only. To balance Wright contributed to this checklist. Tony Lewis identified many this optimism, we know we have not listed all the Fiji fish. When new records during his term as Principal Fisheries Officer, Fiji we compare our fish list against detailed studies of a fish family Government and he also worked on numerous resource surveys (e.g. Pomacentridae by Allen 1991), our list is fairly complete. of Lau, Rabi and Rotuma. He took photos of various Fijian fishes Allen (1991) lists 60 pomacentrids from Fiji (new species have and pasted them on a wall in Fisheries Division, which included been added since 1991) and we list 115 species of which 22 are new records. Paddy Ryan (1980) worked on the freshwater and doubtful. The various changes in fish names from the numerous brackish fishes of Fiji. reviews can make old records unreliable. The deep sea surveys of Raj and Seeto (1983) during their EEC Previous scientific expeditions have collected fish in Fiji and project uncovered a few new species and many new records of they included the Challenger Expedition (Günther, 1889), deep sea fish and invertebrates. Mead’s (1980) SPC deep sea fish which conducted a deep sea survey in Fiji; the Fiji-New Zealand survey also contributed to this list. Expedition (Nutting, 1924); the Templeton-Crocker Expedition to Other people have shared their fish records including Annet western Polynesia and Melanesia (Seale, 1935); the fish collected Ballou (Fulbright student) who looked at the Fijian parrotfish. by the yacht “Alva” (Borodin, 1932); the Wilkes Expedition (Fowler, Dr Suda of the vessel Koyo Maru in 1997 found a Euprotomicrus 1940a); the Crane Expedition (Herre, 1935); and the scientific bispinatus shark near Solo Reef. The Sea Fire, a NZ trawler doing expedition to the tropical Pacific on the steamer “Albatross” an exploratory fishing in Fiji in December 1997 found some new (Kendall and Goldsborough, 1911). Schmeltz (1867-1884) listed records of fish. ORSTOM staff from Noumea trawlled the deep numerous new records of fish from Fiji in the Godeffroy Museum water of the Bligh Waters in August, 1998-1999 and found some Catalogues. Günther (1857-1910) also listed many Fijian fishes. deep sea fish. Dave Greenfield and colleagues from the University Other fish collections were reported by Boulenger (1897) on a of Hawaii collected cryptic fish in Fiji with Jack Randall from collection of fish in Rotuma by J. Stanley Gardener; Jordan and early 1999 until 2003. The team collected in deepwater and they Dickerson (1908) on a collection of fish from Fiji; Whitley (1927) discovered many new species. David Boseto, a Solomon Islander, reported on a checklist of the fishes of Fiji; Fowler (1932) listed fish worked on the freshwater fishes of Fiji for his MSc thesis at USP obtained at Fiji; and Fowler (1955a) wrote about fish collected by under the guidance of Aaron Jenkins of Wetlands International Dr. and Mrs. Laird from Fiji. Fowler (1928) wrote about the fishes and Patricia Kailola. They found seven possible new species of of Oceania with three additional supplements in 1931, 1934, and freshwater fishes and 15 new records for Fiji (Jenkins, 2003). 1949. This major 1928 publication listed all Fijian fish records up Aaron Jenkins continues to survey Fiji rivers and freshwater until then. systems in order to document our freshwater fish biodiversity. Present day fish collections have included those of R. Winterbottom A UVC (Underwater Visual Census) project in 1995 carried out and A. Emery (1983) from the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada by the Fiji Fisheries Division, contributed information to this list. and V.G. Springer’s team (1982) from the Smithsonian Institute, Randy Thaman has been obtaining deepsea fish specimens from Washington. Their collection data are included here. Zug et al., the Fiji Fish Deep sea fishing trips since 2006. He obtained several (1989) listed the vertebrates of Rotuma (including fish) after a visit new records and has donated up to 30 specimens to the Marine in 1988; and Blaber et al., (1993b) listed 355 species of fishes from Collection at USP. He is documenting these fish with photos and their baitfish research in Fiji from 1991 to 1993. David Greenfield biological/collection data. and his team from the University of Hawaii collected fish in Fiji in Page 1 Fishes of the Fiji Islands Rick Winterbottom sent the senior author 591 Fiji fish names from Alopias supercilliosus (Lowe, 1841) the Royal Ontario Museum holdings in 1995. A list of 815 Fiji fish Johnson, 1978, p. 92; Raj and Seeto, 1984 (no page number) (as A. names were sent by Jeff Williams from the Smithsonian Museum vulpinus); Nair, 2003, p. 62 holdings and Mark McGrouther did the same (495 names) from the Australian Museum in 1997. John Randall and Arnold Suzimoto sent the 395 Fiji fish names from the Bishop Museum holdings in Alopias pelagicus Nakamura, 1935 1998. The Bishop Museum list was unconfirmed and not intended Last and Stevens, 1994, p. 155; Fishbase (2003); Nair, 2003, p. 62 for publication. It listed 12 new records which are not included in this publication. The British Museum had not put their fish list on Alopias vulpinus (Bonnaterre, 1788) the database so possible new records may be obtained once this takes place. Nick Dulvy from the United Kingdom gave me a list of Johnson, 1978, p.