Two Germans, a Swede, and a Giant kōkopu: The Background to the Earliest Documented Description of a New Zealand Freshwater Fish

Galaxiids are a family of scaleless and mostly small freshwater fish which are distributed across the temperate latitudes of the southern hemisphere. The largest member of this family is the giant kōkopu ( Galaxias argenteus ), which has the added distinction of being the first New Zealand freshwater fish of any kind to be scientifically described. This description was produced by naturalists on board James Cook's HMS Resolution when they visited Dusky Sound in the far south of New Zealand in the autumn of 1773, and it represents, among other things, a fascinating intersection of history and science. This article, which is primarily historical in its approach, revisits the original documentary records describing the giant kōkopu that were left by Cook's naturalists, and argues that the descriptive process involving this fish was much more of a team effort than has previously been assumed.