This book provides a comprehensive and current source of information on fishesincluding systematics, zoogeography, behavior, and conservation of fishesthat is often needed by professionals as background for writing accurate reports.This book covers the structure and physiology, evolution and taxonomy, zoogeography, and ecology and conservation of fishes.For fisheries biologists, conservation biologists, and aquatic ecologists that need an up-to-date reference on Ichthyology.

Laurence A. Moran
After earning his PhD from Princeton University in 1974, Professor Moran spent four years at the Université dè Geneve in Switzerland. He has been a member of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto since 1978, specializing in molecular biology and molecular evolution. His research findings on heat-shock genes have been published in many scholarly journals.

H. Robert Horton
Dr. Horton, who received his PhD from the University of Missouri in 1962, is William Neal Reynolds Professor Emeritus and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry at North Carolina State University, where he served on the faculty for over 30 years. Most of Professor Horton's research was in protein and enzyme mechanisms.

K. Gray Scrimgeour
Professor Scrimgeour received his doctorate from the University of Washington in 1961 and has been a faculty member at the University of Toronto since 1967. He is the author of The Chemistry and Control of Enzymatic Reactions (1977, Academic Press), and his work on enzymatic systems has been published in more than 50 professional journal articles during the past 40 years. From 1984-1992, he was editor of the journal Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

Marc D. Perry
After earning his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1988, Dr. Perry trained at the University of Colorado, where he studied sex determination in the nematode C. elegans. In 1994 he returned to the University of Toronto as a faculty member in the department of Molecular and Medical Genetics. His research has focused on developmental genetics, meiosis and bioinformatics. In 2004 he joined the Heart & Stroke / Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular Research in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine.

Ichthyology has traditionally emphasized the systematics, anatomy, and distribution of fishes. In the past, most prominent names associated with the field made their major contributions in these areas. Today, however, people who study fish have more far-reaching interests. They study fish to find ways to improve fisheries or aquaculture, to determine the effects of human activities on aquatic environments, and to test ideas in rapidly developing fields, such as ecology, physiology, behavior, and evolution. Growing numbers of sophisticated amateur ichthyologists desire to increase their understanding of fish they keep in aquaria or of those they pursue with hook and line. Regardless of why fish are studied, those studying them still need the basic vocabulary and understanding of fish biology that traditional areas of emphasis provide and that are found in this book, integrated with recent developments in other areas. Our goal is to provide some feeling for the excitement engendered by recent research on fishes. We also want to promote a sense of urgency for the need to protect fishes and aquatic ecosystems. It is critical that a high diversity of fishes continue to be around to fascinate future generations. In large part, this book is designed to serve as a text in classes on fish biology. The large number of chapters and the cross-references within chapters provide instructors of such courses with flexibility when assigning readings in the text. The students we had in mind while writing were junior- and senior-level university students. Our goal, however, is also to provide a useful and palatable summary of recent developments in ichthyology for individuals who have been away from the college classroom for some time and for anyone else who wants an introduction to the most numerous, diverse, and fascinating of all vertebrate groups. This book would not have been possible without the encouragement and help of many people. Initial stimulation and support in fish biology was provided by John B. Moyle, Evelyn W. Moyle, and James C. Underhill (to PB.M.) and by Donald E. Wohlschlag (to J.J.C.). Gary D. Grossman, Donald M. Baltz, and Robert A. Daniels were especially helpful in developing the first versions of many chapters. Numerous graduate and undergraduate students contributed valuable comments on various chapters and/or helped to keep our research programs going while we devoted time to writing. We benefited from discussions with Jeff Graham, Fred White, Tony Farrell, Alan Heath, Carl Schreck, Monica Choi, Stephanie Chun, Hiram Li, Ken Gobalet, Dave Randall, Mikko Nikinmaa, George V Lauder, Laurie Sanderson, Chris Myrick, Cincin Young, Tina Swanson, Carlos Crocker, Shana Katzman, Ann Houck, Ryan Mayfield, Marianne Brick, Keith Marine, Michael Karogosian, Peter Wainwright, and Serge Doroshov. The expert editorial assistance of Chris Myrick and Julie Roessig was especially appreciated during preparation of the fourth and fifth editions, respectively. Ms. Roessig also contributed several original figures to the fifth edition. Trilia Chen also contributed an original figure and editorial assistance to the fifth edition. The reviews of selected chapters in previous editions by Eugene Balon, Michael Bell, David Ehrenfeld, Dale Lott, John Radovich, Arnold Sillman, Randolph Smith, and Paul Webb are appreciated, as are comments by Brooks Burr, Barbara Block, Alfred Ebeling, Kurt Fausch, Malcolm Gordon, Bruce Herbold, Mark Hixon, Paul James, Douglas Markle, John McEachran, Lawrence Page, Theodore Pietsch, Howard Reisman, Frank J. Schwartz, Jerry J. Smith, Timothy Tricas, Linda A. Ward, and Ronald M. Yoshiyama. Theodore Pietsch, Joseph Eastman, Leonard J. Compagno, and Tim M. Berra kindly shared with us their photographs and illustrations of curious fishes. Marjorie Kirkman-Iverson and the staff of our department assisted us in many ways--but especially by keeping the departmental office running efficiently, making it much easier to accomplish our regular duties while the book was in progress. Finally, we are exceedingly grateful to our wives, Marilyn Moyle and Mary Cech, for permitting our marriages to survive and even grow stronger during the many hours over the years we have worked on fish, and to our now-grown children, Petrea and Noah Moyle and Scott and Gregor Cech, for continuing to accept us despite our sometimes obsessive interest in fish. The following reviewers were generous in providing comments and criticism of various editions of the book: Gary J. Atchison, Iowa State University; Dan Beckman, Southwest Missouri State University; Giacomo Bernardi, University of California, Santa Cruz; William Falls, Hillsborough Community College; Ronald A. Fritzsche, Humboldt State University; Kurt D. Fausch, Colorado State University; Malcolm S. Gordon, University of California, Los Angeles; Paul Grecay, Salisbury University; David W Greenfield, University of Hawaii, Honolulu; Ralph J. Larson, San Francisco State University; Douglas E. Markle, Oregon State University; Andrew Martin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; John D. McEachran, Texas A & M University; Karina Mrakovcich, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Jay Nelson, Towson University; Douglas B. Noltie, University of Missouri, Columbia; Steven M. Norris, Miami University of Ohio; J. Michael Parrish, Northern Illinois University; Anne Phelps, Morehead State University; Theodore W. Pietsch, University of Washington; Howard M. Reisman, Southampton College; Charles G. Scalet, South Dakota State University; Andrew L. Sheldon, University of Montana; Jerry J Smith, San Jose State University; Ronald L. Smith, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; and Timothy C. Tricas, Florida Institute of Technology.