Two specimens
We just caught these two fish, which are typical of the region. We took this picture to record their colors, which are lost when the fish are preserved. The one on the left is my first Distichodus, a distant relative of the South American piranha. On the right is a pretty example of a very important genus in Africa, called Barbus. At least we think so; we still need to confirm these identifications back in the lab.

Back at base camp we do some preliminary scientific work. We select the fish we want to keep as samples, and let the rest swim away. Next we anesthetize and kill the fish, and then preserve them in formalin so they can be sorted. Here I'm describing the fish to John Sullivan, a colleague from Cornell University, who is recording the data in our field notebook.

It's extremely important to document where each fish was caught. In our field notebook we record the longitude and latitude of the site, describe the body of water and the vegetation around it, and analyze the water chemistry. We also make a list of all the species we found, and in what quantity. This data is crucial for ongoing research back at the lab.