Sea world and south - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 85

Afine collection of Mexican tropical fish on board the Five Bells.
(Photo by author)
drove all the way to the La Paz airport to fly Bob's precious butterflyfish
alive back to San Diego and the Scripps Aquarium.
On our eventual return we learned to our dismay that Scripps ichthy-
ologist Dick Rosenblatt had promptly pickled it in formalin the
minute he got it! As a taxonomist, Dick thought the fish had much
more value as a scientific specimen in a collection jar than as a fish swim-
ming in an aquarium. Of course, we, as aquarists and lovers of live fish,
didn't see it the same way at all. Anyway, that was the end of the first
scythe butterflyfish to be captured alive. Both Bob and I muttered into
our beer about that one for months afterward.
SAFELY HOME
The first Cabo San Lucas collecting phase ended with the all-day task
of carefully transferring the hundreds of fishes from the floating re-
ceivers to the below-deck holding tanks on the Five Bells. Next we had