ANGFA Life Member
Andy Wattam
Andy Wattam, ANGFA's long-time ACT contact and one of its earliest Life Members, played a central role in one of the association's landmark conservation efforts: the rescue of the Lake Eacham Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia eachamensis, after its reported extinction in the wild in 1987. As part of the three-person survey team with Alex and June Caughey, Andy helped track down every captive population in the country within a week of the extinction report, laid the groundwork for a coordinated breeding program, and co-authored the definitive account of the rescue with Alex Caughey and Steve Hume.
He was also, with Ken Smales and Alex and June Caughey, one of the organisers of ANGFA's first two national conventions in Sydney, went on to help run the 1999 Canberra convention as "that dynamic duo" with Scott Hunt, and in the late 1980s started up ANGFA's first bi-monthly national and international newsletter. He was honoured with ANGFA Life Membership among the association's earliest recipients, alongside Ron Bowman, Bruce Hansen, Neil Armstrong, Ken Smales and Dave Wilson.
This page draws together his contributions found so far across Fishes of Sahul and the Qld Newsletter — publications digitised to date.
Contributions found so far
- 5 authored/co-authored articles located across Fishes of Sahul and the Qld Newsletter 2 in Fishes of Sahul · 3 in the Qld Newsletter
- Founding member of the Melanotaenia eachamensis rescue program, ANGFA's coordinated response to the species' reported extinction in the wild in 1987
- Founder of ANGFA's first national/international newsletter in the late 1980s, and co-organiser of ANGFA's first two national conventions in Sydney and the 1999 Canberra convention
- One of the earliest ANGFA Life Members, honoured alongside Ron Bowman, Bruce Hansen, Neil Armstrong, Ken Smales and Dave Wilson
Counts are drawn from an author/photo-credit search across every ANGFA publication processed so far and will grow as more issues are indexed — treat them as a running minimum, not a final tally. As with several other committee-focused life members, Andy's role in convention organising and the eachamensis rescue runs well ahead of what a bibliography search alone can show.
Featured contributions
Melanotaenia eachamensis – History and Management of the Captive Stocks
Fishes of Sahul, Vol. 6(1), March 1990 — with Alex Caughey & Steve Hume
"One week after the report at the Annual Conference of the Australian Society of Fish Biology, ANGFA had a management scheme in action." The full account of ANGFA's rapid, volunteer-driven rescue of a species declared extinct in the wild — tracing every surviving captive population back to its original collection and coordinating breeding across the country.
Ancestors of the Rainbowfish (transcribed by Andy Wattam)
Qld Newsletter, Vol. 12(6), November 1996
Andy's transcript of the 1996 Melbourne Convention's most notorious after-dinner speech — Ron Bowman's son Graham posing as a visiting German palaeontologist and spinning an increasingly absurd tale of 170,000-year-old cave paintings depicting rainbowfish ancestors, to the delight of the whole room.
Complete list of contributions found so far
Sorted by publication, then chronologically. Co-authored pieces are included. This list will be extended as more publications are indexed.
Fishes of Sahul (2)
- The Fly River rainbowfish Melanotaenia sexlineata (Munro, 1964)Vol. 4(3) — Wattam, A.
- Melanotaenia eachamensis – history and management of the captive stocksVol. 6(1) — Caughey, A., Hume, S. and Wattam, A.
Qld Newsletter (3)
- ANGFA National - National & International NewsletterVol. 5(2), Mar 1989 — Andy Wattam
- ANGFA National - Taronga Park Zoo - Australian Native Fish DisplayVol. 5(2), Mar 1989 — Andy Wattam
- Guest Speaker - Oct 96 - Transcript of Graham Bowman's presentation about New Cave Drawings in the Northern Territory at the Melbourne ConventionVol. 12(6), Nov 1996 — Andy Wattam