Policies & Loans

To request information on our collection holdings or to request a loan of fish collection holdings, please contact the collections' curator via e-mail.

We evaluate loan requests based on the potential impact of the planned investigation. To make this assessment, loan request must be supported by information on the goals of the study that requires the materials requested, a timeline to production of study results and the qualifications of the personnel participating in the research. Loan requests from institutions that do not maintain research collections also require a description of the recipients experience and ability to properly manage, preserve and return fish research collection specimens.

Please include the following information with all loan requests:

1) Contact information (including name, address and institutional affiliation of primary party responsible for the loan request)

2) Project title and brief description of project objectives.

3) List of planned project outcomes.

4) Estimated timeline for project execution.

5) If requesting destructive sampling (e.g. tissue samples, dissections), include a description of why destructive sampling is needed and justification of need. The curator evaluates destructive sampling requests based on factors like the rarity of requested specimens and the research objectives justifying the loan.