Department of Fisheries

This department houses a number of fish and cephalopod specimens as well as prehistoric fishing gear samples. A shark collection is one of the outstanding features of this department. It mainly comprises large sharks such as carcharinids, sphyrnids, laminids, and odontaspidids from the Indo-Pacific region, including whole specimens of adult, young animals, and fetuses preserved in formalin solution, as well as dried jaws, vertebrae, and skins. This department also houses a collection of teleosts and cephalopods from not only the coastal waters of Japan but also East Asia, which includes more than 200 carangids and scorpaenids. Another important collection of bony fishes contains many demersal fish caught by bottom trawling along the Pacific coast of central Japan. Type specimens of Chlorophthalmus acutifrons Hiyama (Chlorophthalmidae) are part of this collection. Coastal fish specimens from the central and southern waters of Japan, demersal fish and invertebrate specimens from the Gulf of Thailand, deep-sea shark specimens from different parts of the world, and freshwater fish, mainly callichthyids, from Brazil have been collected and studied. The collection of prehistoric fishing gear comprises hooks and harpoons made of deer horn and other materials.

Teeth and jaws of Carcharias taurus（Sand tiger shark)	Historically valuable books, including a fish inventory

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