Editors: Gomon, M., Bray, D. and Kuiter, R.

Reed New Holland

Those of you who were fortunate enough to secure a copy of Gomon, Glover and Kuiter’s 1994 tome The Fishes of Australia’s South Coast before it was out of print, will know how valuable this reference book is for marine researchers, divers, educators and naturalists across southern Australia. That book summarised names, taxonomic description, distribution, habitat, and some aspects of biology, for 727 shelf and slope fishes from 201 families, ranging from Wilsons Promontory to Recherche Archipelago. The long-awaited second edition, Fishes of Australia’s Southern Coast, by Martin Gomon, Dianne Bray and Rudie Kuiter, contains all of the useful features of the old, with some helpful additions. Broad range distribution maps are included for each species, conveniently positioned next to the each synopsis. The updated volume now discusses 215 families and at least 860 species. Most of the new taxa are recently described slope fishes (some examples include several whiptails in the genus Coelorinchus, snailfishes in Paraliparis, and the bizarre Southern Stoplight Loosejaw Malacosteus australis), but there are several new shelf species included (such as shore-els), and a number of coastal fish groups have been reworked (e.g. blindfishes). Recently described species that did not make it into the new volume in time for publication, are included in an Errata note from the publishers: https://www.newholland.com.au/other/errata_djb.pdf. These include some of the: catsharks in Apristurus and Cephaloscyllium; skates in Dipturus, Dentiraja, Notoraja and Pavoraja; dogfishes in Squalus, and gulper sharks in Centrophorus. Most of these new chondrichthyan descriptions appear in recent research papers from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, and reference papers for others are cited in the Errata.

The layout of the 2008 edition is much improved. The clear photos are larger than those in the previous volume, and for more of the sexually dimorphic species, photos of both male and female are included. As in the previous volume, within many of the families there are separate keys to both genera and species, but in the new edition, these keys are shaded, and thus easier to find amongst the other text. For some taxa, annotated pen drawings next to the key explain significant anatomical features that assist keying out. More detailed figures of fish anatomy are included at the end of the book. For each species, the scientific reference to the holotype is also included after the synopsis.

The new edition includes, as did the 1994 volume, an introductory section on classification of fishes, and a detailed guide to interpreting the various sections of the synopses. New additions include a section on geographical coverage and habitats (in particular, more fishes from sea mounts are included in this edition, following surveys during the past decade), and a brief discussion of legislation and human impacts relating to marine and estuarine fishes.

Common names follow those used in the Australian Standard Fish Names List. Some of the currently accepted names differ from those commonly used by fisheries scientists, divers and fishers, but for most species, a section on Other Common Names is included. It is perhaps disappointing that two of the most speciose groups of unnamed fishes, the weedfishes in Heteroclinus and gobies in Nesogobius, remain so in the new edition. Another group, the clingfishes, still contains unnamed genera and species. This might indicate the state of fish taxonomy in Australia. For most groups (including marine bony fishes), few specialist taxonomic workers exist; there is often little institutional time provided for those specialists to describe new species; few funding opportunities (with the notable exception of the very worthwhile Australian Biological Resources Study) and, during the past decade or more, little encouragement from universities for students to learn marine taxonomy, and thence take it up as a viable career option.

Also worth noting: although assignment of sp.1, sp.2 etc. for unnamed fishes is convenient and sensible, when there is no correspondence between authors in the use of those numbers for a particular species , the result is confusing. For example, those who have consulted Gomon et al.’s 1994 and 2008 volumes, compared with Kuiter’s Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia (2000 reprint, Gary Allen, Sydney), will understand this discrepancy in assigned numbers, at least for the weedfishes and the gobies. For most readers (who are not taxonomists ), the standardisation of common names becomes especially important in such cases where numbers differ between references.

Readers should be aware that the volume is not a complete inventory of fishes in continental shelf and slope waters across southern Australia. I have often read in government documents over the years, that 600-odd species of bony fishes are found in continental shelf waters of southern Australia, and this significant under-estimate is usually based on a simple tally of the bony fishes listed in Gomon et al. (1994). For those biodiversity workers who count species numbers over geographical space, it is worth remembering that numerous fishes from south-western Australia are not included in the Gomon et al. volumes, nor are some of the Tasmanian endemics. In particular, anyone compiling fish lists for south-western Australian shelf waters are advised to consult more detailed supplementary material, including West Australian Museum publications such as inventories for some coastal locations, islands and archipelagos, compiled by Dr Barry Hutchins.

To date, the 2008 edition is presented in hard cover only, and although this makes it a weighty volume, it increases longevity. For years, I have borrowed a soft-cover copy of the 1994 edition (almost 1000 pages), and found that the glue did not stand the test of time with regular opening and closing of the spine, so the well-used copy is now literally falling apart. Those who are waiting for the soft cover edition might consider the robustness of a hard cover copy.

This new edition took years to compile, and contains informative synopses from numerous contributing authors (many of those from the previous volume), and a large number of good quality colour photographs. Fishes of Australia?s Southern Coast is the most useful and up to date reference on the fishes of southern Australia, and will likely remain so for at least the next decade.

Reviewed by: Janine Lilian Baker, Marine Ecologist, Somerton Park, South Australia