The Scripps Institution of Oceanography Marine Vertebrate Collection began over 90 years ago with a collection of fishes accumulated by the Curator of the Scripps Aquarium, Percy S. Barnhart. These were on display for visitors in the museum portion of the combined Library-Museum Building.


In 1944, the preeminent marine biologist and natural historian Carl Hubbs accepted a faculty appointment at SIO and began actively collecting fishes from the southern California region. The Collection grew rapidly, and in 1948, the Marine Life Research Program, which focused on the California Current, also provided numerous samples of pelagic and oceanic fishes from the region (e.g. CalCOFI). In the early 1950s, significant numbers of midwater fishes were added to the Collection when the SIO fleet was making heavy use of the newly developed Isaacs-Kidd Midwater Trawl.

Carl Hubbs(L) and actor Errol Flynn (R) aboard Flynn's yacht Zaca off the coast of Baja California. August 1946.
Photo: SIO Archives

In 1958, Richard H. Rosenblatt was appointed as Curator of Fishes. Soon after his arrival, space was provided for the Collection in Ritter Hall. Under Rosenblatt's care the Collection continued to grow as pelagic, midwater, and deep-sea specimens from around the world were added. Rosenblatt and Hubbs also made numerous collections of shore fishes from the tropical eastern Pacific, especially Mexico and Panama. The Collection occupied most of the ground floor of one wing of Ritter Hall until the fall of 1999 when it was moved to Vaughan Hall, a replacement building for the aging Ritter Hall. Although floor space in the new facility is similar to that in Ritter Hall, funds provided by the National Science Foundation were used to install compactor shelving, greatly increasing the space available for specimen storage. In that same year, Philip Hastings was hired as Curator of Fishes. Richard Rosenblatt became Curator Emeritus in January 2000, and H.J. Walker and Cynthia Klepadlo continue as Collection Managers.