FishBaseAn Internet Gateway to Information on Fish

Rainer FroeseInstitute of Marine Research

Kiel, Germanyrfroese@ifm.uni-kiel.de

Overview

• What is FishBase?

• Who uses FishBase?

• Constraints to usage

• Important Partners

• Lessons learned

• Where is FishBase going?

What is FishBase?

• www.fishbase.de >>• Species summary information >>• Common names >>• Synonyms >>• Population dynamics >> • Life history tool >>• Wizards >>• Biogeographic modelling >>

Who Uses FishBase?

• Hits and Visitor Sessions

• Types of Users

• Where Do They Come From?

• What Do They Want? >>

• > 1000 pages link to www.fishbase.org

• Where is the Science?

Where is the Science?85 ISI Citations, 3 in Nature, 2 in Science

Fisheries

Ecology

Parasitology

Conservation

Genetics

PalaeontologyTaxonomy

IT

June 2002

Constraints to UsageFishBase Usage Compared with Internet Usage by

Country, in 2001

0.0001

0.001

0.01

0.1

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10

100

0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100

Internet Users (% of all Users)

Fis

hB

as

e S

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(%

of

all

Se

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ion

s)

USA

Qatar

Fr Polynesia

Brunei

Japan

China

South Korea

Russia

Taiwan

India

Lebanon

Venezuela

>>

Important Partners

• Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes

• FAO Databases (SIDP, FIGIS, Catch)

• IUCN’s Red List

• National Fish Databases

• Genbank

• ECOTOX

• Bibliographies (ZR, NISC, ASFA)

Lessons Learned

• ‘Science first’ attitude

• ‘Yes’ attitude towards suggestions

• Invite, accept and act on criticism

• Data quantity and quality first

• Keep it simple, software keeps changing

• Invest in people

• Give more credit than expected

• What is not used is useless

Future Directions

• Play leading role in biodiversity research

• Participate in relevant initiatives (GBIF, ENBI, Species 2000, OBIS, MARBEF, EVBL, PBI, ECOFISH)

• From FishBase to SpeciesBase

www.fishbase.org

FishBase Web Usage over Time

0.00.51.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.05.56.06.5

January 1999 - April 2003

Mil

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n h

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50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Th

ou

san

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Hits

Sessions

FishBase vs Internet Usage

0

100

200

300

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500

600

1/00 4/00 7/00 10/00 1/01 4/01 7/01 10/01 1/02 4/02

Jan. 2000 - May 2002

Rel

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Use

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Internet: 254,299,000FishBase: 20,948

Internet: 566,000,000FishBase: 114,385

FishBase

Internet

Source for Internet growth: NUA Internet Services

FishBase Web Users

Individuals

Private sector

Universities

Governments

NGOs

Museums

Int. Research Centres

Based on 1391 entries in the FishBase Guest Book, June 2002

FishBase Users by Continent

North America

Europe

Asia

South America

Africa

Australia

Oceania

Based on 1391 entries in the FishBase Guest Book, June 2002

FishBase Web Usage by Topic

Common Names

Scientific NamesSpecies

Summaries

Photos

FishBase Book

Fish Quiz

Specialist Topics

Frequency of FishBase Hits by Topic

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Exotic species

Genetics

Ichthyology course

Ecology

Physiology

Population dynamics

Reproduction

Identification keys

Quiz

Quick identification

Trophic ecology

Fish collections

FishBase book

FishWatchers

FishForum

Eggs & larvae

Catalog of Fishes

Maps

References

Glossary

Scientific names

Country info

Photos

Summary information

Common names

Percent of total hits (October 2002)(1 % = 2000 hits)

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