Fish out of Water

It gives me great pleasure to announce to you all that Mark McGrouther last week won the 2019 Australian Museum Research Institute Medal at the Eureka awards for his contribution to the Australian Museum, Ichthyology and citizen science.

In his 31 years as Australian Museum Ichthyology Collection Manager, Mark has overseen and built the collection to what it is today, the largest in the southern hemisphere and the fourth largest type collection in the world. He is widely considered as one of the leading fish collection managers globally due to his substantial contributions to ichthyology over the past three decades. He is the brains behind Australasian Fishes, and has been working towards building this amazing fish community for the past 10 years, its success is a testament to his passion and commitment.

His love of fishes is highly infectious and he has inspired countless people to appreciate the world of fish. Mark is a minor internet celebrity with over 1 million views of his Goblin Shark YouTube clip. He has three species of fishes named after him, an indication of the high esteem he is held in by his peers.

Mark wanted to sincerely thank all the members of Australasian Fishes for making the project a success. He often says that one of the great strengths of the project is the community and believes that without you he would not have received this honour. Please join me in congratulating Mark on this fabulous recognition of his achievements, he was truly surprised, humbled and looked like a fish out of water accepting his award.