Covers the inshore fish fauna of New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, the southern Gilbert Islands (Kiribati),Tuvalu, Fiji, the Wallis Islands, Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, the Tokelau Islands, the Phoenix Islands, the Cook Islands, the Austral Islands, Rapa, the Society Islands, the Tuamoto Archipelago, the Marquesas Islands, and the Pitcairn Islands. It contains accounts of nearly 1500 species of fishes, abundantly illustrated by colour photographs, taken mostly underwater.
John E. Randall, the foremost authority on coral reef fishes of the world, is ichthyologist emeritus at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu.