Freshwater Fish: The Miner’s Canary in the Aquatic Realm.
An interview with evolutionary biologist, Melanie Stiassny, Associate Curator, Department of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History, 1995. Dr. Stiassy’s research focuses on the systemics of fresh water and fauna in Madagascar and Africa. Her interests include conservation biology of freshwater fish and she is a member of the museum’s current bio-diversity initiative in Tanzania. I found Dr. Melanie Stiassny in her office in the cavernous corridors inside New York’s Museum of Natural History. It is a large spacious room and yellow sunlight streams in through the large ornate windows across her large untidy desk. Huge stuffed fish hang from the walls with charts and anatomical drawings. There’s a Walkman on her desk and a pair of yellow roller blades tossed in one corner – she blades around Central Park at lunchtime. “My specialty is fish so I’m an ictholologist and have really grown to love fish tremendously. They are a fabulous model to examine evoluti...
