Immersed in thousands of gallons of isopropyl alcohol in a California warehouse, 2 million fish sleep forever. Marine biologist Phil Hastings is their keeper.

Hastings, who curates the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s library of fish, inherited the responsibility in 1999. He’s been sorting, identifying, preserving and studying the jarred specimens ever since.

The library’s first specimens arrived in 1875 with a fisherman’s catch, but it wasn’t until the 1940s that the collection grew in earnest. Today the shelves cradle creatures gathered during some 21,000 collection cruises. Another 27,000 fishes will soon be added after sitting in formalin for half a century.

Altogether the specimens are a unique snapshot of marine life in Earth’s recent history. “We tried to estimate just the cost of all the ships that went out to collect animals, and it went into the billions of dollars. But you can’t go back in time,” Hastings said. “From a historical standpoint, the collections are priceless wonders of the world.”

Other Scripps oceanographic collections include invertebrates, mud cores and rocks. Photographer Marc Tule, a former marine biology student, has received unprecedented access to the collections. “It was an extreme honor and a labor of love,” he said. “Since I’m a big fan of marine science, it was kind of like photographing the hottest celebrities you can imagine.”

Tule, Hastings and others shared their photos with Wired.com. We show some of our favorites in this gallery.

Above:

Anglers are bottom-dwelling fish, and females typically dwarf males. During mating, the male angler bites onto the female. Except for his gonads, she absorbs every part of him into her skin.

One female angler preserved in the collection (below) has a small male attached to her belly.

Images: Marc Tule.