Twelve Years of FishBase Status Quo and Future Directions Rainer Froese Institute of Marine Research Kiel, Germany

Overview What is FishBase? Who uses FishBase? Constraints to usage Important Partners Lessons learned Where is FishBase going?

What is FishBase? >> 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 Where is the Science?

Where is the Science? 85 ISI Citations, 3 in Nature, 2 in Science IT June 2002

Constraints to Usage >>

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

FishBase am IfM FishBase Idee 1987 LarvalBase seit 1998 FishBase Koordinierung seit 2001 –IfM nimmt Teil an Biodiversitätsinitiativen –Insgesamt €1.2 Millionen Drittmittel –12 Veröffentlichungen, 14 Konferenzen –Interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit Verbleib am IfM nach 2003 unklar

Thank You

FishBase vs Internet Usage Source for Internet growth: NUA Internet Services

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

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