FishBaseFishBaseGlobal Global

DataBankDataBankand and ToolTool

Rainer FroeseGermany

rfroese@ifm-geomar.de

The VisionThe Vision

Back in 1987, scientists in Kiel had an idea… Create a database with key-information on 200 commercial

fish species Use it for research Make it available to 500 fisheries managers in developing

countries

20 years later www.fishbase.org contains information on 29,800 species Has over 1,000 citations in the scientific literature Has about 2 million visitors per month in the Internet

Along the way• Imke Achenbach did a MS thesis under HR,

testing an early version of FishBase for identification of diseases;

• HR was German Liason-Scientist to ICLARM, supporting continued development of FishBase;

• HR secured German funding for LarvalBase, the early life-history component of FishBase;

• HR was founding member and first Chair of the FishBase Consortium in times of crisis;

• HR orchestrated the offer of IFM to host the global coordination of FishBase in Germany;

• HR supported stream of data flowing towards FishBase through the Journal of Applied Ichthyology

If these hits were stocks…

Hits per Month on FishBase

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

A 98 A 99 A 00 A 01 A 02 A 03 A 04 A 05 A 06 A 07

Years (August)

Hit

s p

er m

onth

(m

illi

ons)

November 2006:29 million hits2 million visits

It Looks Like This…It Looks Like This…

And ThisAnd This

Where is the Science?

Who is Using it?Who is Using it?

FishBase Web Users

Individuals

Private sector

Universities

Governments

NGOs

Museums

Int. Research Centres

Based on 2787 entries in the FishBase Guestbook, March 2007

Where?Where?

FishBase Users by Continent

North America

Europe

Asia

South America

Africa

Australia

Oceania

Based on 2787 entries in the FishBase Guestbook , March 2007

What?What?

Common names

Scientific names

Direct linksSpecies summaries

Photos

Specialist topics

Based on 2.5 million page views by directory on Kiel server in September 2005

FishBase Usage by Topic

Frequency of FishBase Usage by Topic

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Genetics

Diseases

FishQuiz

Reproduction

Maps

FB book

Physiology

Population dynamics

Trophic ecology

Identification

LarvalBase

Scientific Names

Museum collections

Eschmeyer

Glossary

References

Country information

Photos

Common Names

Species Summaries

Percent of total page views (July 2004)

About 10,000 visitors per month

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

Fisheries

Ecology

Parasitology

Conservation

Genetics

PalaeontologyTaxonomy

IT

June 2002

Google Scholar, April 2006: 1610 citations, including 5 in Nature and 7 in Science

Fisheries

Ecology

Conservation

Aquaculture

Taxonomy

Genetics

Parasitology

IT

Palaeontology

(2,390 citations in June 2007)

Classification of Web Sites Linking to www.fishbase.org

Academe23%

Government21%NGO

10%

Other12%

Private29%

Research Center

5%

personal pagespersonal pagesenterprise companiesenterprise companiesother private institutionsother private institutions

international commissions/consortiainternational commissions/consortiainfo portals, references/search archives, blogsinfo portals, references/search archives, blogs

Link-AnalysisLink-Analysis

(Science 1998)

FishBase can be utilized to produce simple, but effective posters:

…….. customized for.. customized fora fishery,a fishery, a fishing area, a fishing area, fishing gear, fishing gear, fish market, fish market, etc. etc.

A simple poster showing the actual A simple poster showing the actual lengths of fish species at first lengths of fish species at first maturity can be a useful management maturity can be a useful management tool. Posted in public places (e.g. tool. Posted in public places (e.g. public market), consumers can public market), consumers can compare the size of the fish they buy compare the size of the fish they buy with the pictures in the poster and with the pictures in the poster and know whether the fishknow whether the fishhas reached maturity.has reached maturity.

19/32

Fish RulersFish Rulers

Under The HoodFrom DataEase to MS Access to MySQL to ???

• From HTML to Cold Fusion to PHP to ???

• 6 mirrors around the world, not enough

• www.ZoneEdit.com for load-balancing, maybe not sufficient

Lessons: Evolve or Go Extinct

General Principles• Keep it simple• Yes-Attitude• Be opportunistic• Give more credit than was expected• Deal with errors

– Expose data– Invite, accept and act on criticism– Compare data– Use your data

Lessons: Spirit

Lessons: Business Model• `Champion´: Rainer Froese• Key supporters: Daniel Pauly,

Cornelia Nauen, Harald Rosenthal• Institutions:

– ICLARM– Since 2000: FishBase Consortium

• Donors:– European Commission– Sloan, Germany– Pew, USGS, NRDC, Taiwan, Australia, …

• Strong leadership by one person• Loose oversight by Consortium• Full-time data entry by team of

specialists; full-time programmers• Large network of additional

contributors (mostly photos & corrections)

Lessons: Operating Mode

Future Plans• Complete coverage and content• Improve mapping • Add more analytical tools• Move to mobile devices• Do FishBase for all aquatic species• Do FishBase for all species

Future Plans

Computer-generated AquaMap for Mola mola

Expert-edited AquaMap for Mola mola

Marine Biodiversity(5,222 species)

Future Plans• Complete coverage and content• Improve mapping • Add more analytical tools• Move to mobile devices• Do FishBase for all aquatic species• Do FishBase for all species

Future Plans

Greetings from the FishBase Greetings from the FishBase TeamTeam

Thanks to FishBaseThanks to FishBase Partners and Sponsors Partners and Sponsors