Randall, John Ernest, Jr., 1924–2020, American ichthyologist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa, 1955. A marine taxonomist, he named 30 new genera and hundreds of new species of fish. Particularly interested in reef fish, as well as regions, such as the Marquesas and Easter Island, with unique species, he was one of the first ichthyologists to use scuba gear, allowing him to study living fish in their native habitats. Randall taught at Yale, the Univ. of Miami, and the Univ. of Puerto Rico before becoming head of the Hawaii Oceanic Institute (1965–66). With Hawaii's Bishop Museum from 1966, he became (1975) chairman of its zoology department and (1984) senior ichthyologist. He retired in 2009. Among his numerous books are Caribbean Reef Fishes (1983), Sharks of Arabia (1986), Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea (1990), Shore Fishes of Hawaii (1996, with G. R. Allen and R. C. Steene), and Reef and Shore Fishes of the South Pacific (2005).
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