Search UoK Web

The Marine Reference Collection & Resource Centre was established in 1967 as Invertebrate Reference Museum (IRM) in Karachi University to meet the growing need of a better knowledge regarding the marine fauna of the northern Arabian Sea. With the increasing interest in marine biology in recent decades, UNESCO established several biological reference collection centres in the developing countries. As such the need for local reference collection became more and more apparent. In 1970 a re-thinking on the whole project was made and the IRM was attached to the Zoology Department, later established as a separate research Centre. IRM was re-named and re-organized as the Marine Invertebrate Reference Collection Centre. In 1983 it was finally designated as the Marine Reference and Resource Collection Centre (MRCRC).

The advisory panel for MRCRC invites experts to collaborate in the study of the material collected, sorted and curated by the staff of MRCRC. Work on various systematic groups may be done either at MRCRC or in their scientific institutions to which material is lent. In case of new species, holotypes and paratypes are sometimes submitted to the first class Museum like Smithsonian Institution, Washington or the British Museum (N.H) London, but mostly to MRCRC. The Centre is in touch with foreign laboratories and institutions of similar interests. MRCRC publishes a newsletter highlighting activities of MRCRC and general information on marine research and a biannual journal "Pakistan Journal of Marine Sciences". The Centre became a partner of the recently established Expert-Center for Taxonomic Identifications (ETI) at Amsterdam and obtained users license for ETI Software which involved an exchange of biodiversity data for ETI's World Biodiversity Database and also a member of the International Geosphere – Biosphere Program. The Centre organizes Workshops, Seminars and Conferences as and when funds are available.