This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) covers how fish specimens are to be sampled and preserved for vouchering at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, in association with the Darwin Tree of Life project (DToL).  

Please note this SOP covers sampling tissue and blood either during an appropriate veterinary/scientific procedure or post-mortem, with assumed veterinary knowledge. It is applicable if the submitter/centre in question has opportunities to sample tissue from animals that are being either being euthanized for clinical or scientific purposes, undergoing veterinary procedures or eligible biobanked carcasses (storage dependent).

NHM prides itself on maintaining the highest quality specimens for vouchering purposes, enabling samples to be used as a reference for any future scientific study.  

This SOP is covers fish in general - other available Chordata SOPs include DToL Chordata: Vertebrata: Aves and DToL Chordata: Vertebrata (for an overview).

This is version one of this SOP, and may be subject to change in the future.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Oliver Crimmen at the Natural History Museum for reviewing this SOP.

DToL Specimen submission form template MARINE VERSION for external submitters_Marine.xlsx