2.5 Transportation of Specimens
Specimens should be stored and transported carefully to ensure that they remain in excellent condition. This may involve attention to such details as light conditions, dust, humidity, temperature, packing of containers, and transport of dangerous goods.
Federal Transport of Dangerous Goods regulations apply to the shipping of many chemicals such as formalin, ethanol and isopropanol and special shipping arrangements must be made with companies able to handle dangerous goods. The Chief of Biological Collections at the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) can provide recommendations for shipping companies that are able to handle dangerous goods. Specimens must be shipped in adequately padded wooden, plastic or metal shipping containers to prevent damage to the specimens and leakage of preservative during normal handling.
In the field use glass or plastic containers and be sure the lid is tightly sealed with the appropriate gaskets so that leakage of liquid or noxious fumes will not occur. Do not to use metal containers which corrode and can stain specimens. Metal drums are most useful for large fish, but should be painted on the inside to prevent contact of fluid with metal. Preservatives should fill the entire container so that there is no air pocket. In rough transport the air pocket or bubble can slosh around and damage delicate specimens. If the curved sides of a bottle are likely to cause the specimens to be preserved in a curled position, place container on its side during fixation so that the specimens will be preserved in a straight position. Do not overcrowd the bottles, buckets or vats used. If preserved with ample room, fins and other appendages are more likely to be fixed in the preferred position.
Museums must know in advance when to expect a collection and the size of the collection so that they can be ready to process the incoming specimens. Museum staff and inventory personnel should be in frequent contact to ensure the most efficient handling of specimens. A copy of any written reports and field notes associated with the voucher specimens should accompany the collection.
The recommended repository for the majority of taxa considered in this manual is the Royal BC Museum. The mandate of this institution includes "to collect, preserve and research the natural history of British Columbia" and has the required expertise to oversee the storage and management of biological collections and their related data.
The University of British Columbia may also be used as a repository for some of the taxa considered in this manual if the Royal BC Museum does not need or want to store them.
Royal BC Museum |
University of British Columbia |
Chief, Natural History Collections, |
6270 University Blvd., |
675 Belleville Street, |
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 |
PO Box 9815 Stn Prov Gov't |
|
Victoria, BC V8W 9W2 |
Note: Specimens may not be accepted by the museum if they are not collected, prepared, labelled and contained properly (as set out in this manual and as per other specifications required by the collection manager), or if sufficient funds have not been allotted to cover the cost of storing and maintaining them.
The Royal BC Museum can provide curation services for voucher specimens. Specimen "curation" includes a) receipt of specimen and data, issue of Temporary Receipt Form; b) preservation of specimen; c) notification of curator for designation of specimen; d) accession of specimen, notification to donor of accession number and designation; e) preparation of specimen, label(s) attached to all pieces; f) specimens stored in collection; g) full data on a computerized database.
The following curation rates are given as a guideline for estimating the cost of incorporating voucher specimens into the collections at the Royal BC Museum. Rates will vary with expertise of staff, complexity of identification, etc.
Only voucher specimens collected to the standards outlined herein will be stored at the Royal BC Museum. Such storage will be for a minimum period of five years or such time as is negotiated between the collecting agency and the Royal BC Museum. Beyond this "voucher storage period" some specimens may become part of the Royal BC Museum's permanent collection.
As emphasized in the previous sections, specimens must be collected, prepared, labelled and contained properly to be accepted by the museum. For each taxon group you will find a section that describes the specific equipment required for preparing and storing specimens. It is very important that specified materials are used as this will ensure that specimens arrive at the museum in the appropriate form and will prevent re-doing specimens which wastes both time and money.
Wet specimens are stored in brasilicate glass jars, covered by a polyethylene lid with a polyethylene gasket. Oversize specimens are stored in plastic vats. The preserving fluid is isopropanol except in entomology where the preserving fluid is ethanol. A 45 gallon drum of 99% isopropanol is approximately $280.00 and a 5 gallon pail of 95% ethanol is approximately $100.00.
Dry specimens are pinned and stored in unit trays in cabinets (entomology), stored in Durphy boxes in Lane cases or are stored on shelving in Lane cases.
At first glance, it may seem a simple matter to deal with specimens from an inventory project. Inventory personnel might collect samples, put the specimens in jars and ship them to a museum to handle. However, when examined in detail, it becomes apparent that the costs of collecting the organisms are just a fraction of the total financial picture. For example, Scudder (in press) calculated that for a sampling period of one night per week over seven months for terrestrial arthropods, processing and identifying only the moths caught (excluding other insects), would take one person approximately four months to accomplish!
Collection costs include not only the actual cost of collecting a specimen in the field, but the costs associated with preparing, storing and maintaining the collection. All these elements must be considered when making a budget.
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