FishBase
FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish (finfish). As of June 2011[update], it included descriptions of 32,000 species and subspecies, 291,200 common names in almost 300 languages, 50,400 pictures, and references to 45,800 works in the scientific literature. Fishbase has been warmly received, having been cited over 1,500 times; however, it has also been criticized for inaccuracies in the database. One paper points out a number of glaring errors in the length-weight parameters, along with mistakes in length specifications, and failures to give specific subspecies and phenotypes.[1]
Overview
In 1987, Daniel Pauly, inspired by the Species Identification Sheets and other products Walter Fischer had generated for the Food and Agriculture Organization in the 1970s, proposed a standardized database for fish species, as a part of the "ICLARM Software Project". The following year, he began to work with Rainer Froese, who had been working on an expert system to identify fish larvae. After a first attempt to build a system using Prolog, Froese switched to DataEase, a relational database for DOS. In 1989 the project received its first grant.
In 1993 the project switched to Microsoft Access, and 1995 the first CD-ROM was released as "FishBase 100". Its initial reviews in scientific journals lauded the scope but criticized the remaining gaps in coverage. Subsequent CDs were released annually, with the FishBase 2004 release needing five CDs, or one DVD. The software needs Windows 98 or later, and is not available on any other computer platform such as Mac OS X or Linux.
FishBase first appeared on the World Wide Web in August 1996, and a webmaster was hired in the following year. In 1999 a new module on ichthyoplankton and detailed data on fish larvae identification and rearing was created (LarvalBase) under the supervision of Bernd Ueberschaer. Eventually, the complete data of the CDs became available online.
As awareness of FishBase has grown among fish specialists, it has attracted over 1,700 contributors and collaborators. In order to preserve its value as a scientific database, FishBase is not allowed to include original data; all of its content must be based on previously-published material.
FishBase Consortium
Since the year 2000, FishBase has been run by the FishBase Consortium. The consortium consists of:
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
- Chinese Academy of Fishery Science, Beijing, China
- Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
- Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy
- IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany
- Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
- Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium
- Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
- WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia
Reception
FishBase has been warmly received and widely cited. A Google Scholar search shows over 1500 citations. However, numerous errors in the database have also been pointed out, including errors in length-weight parameters for a number of freshwater species, failure to specify length type even when clearly stated in original sources, and failure to specify subspecies and/or phenotype.[1] A group at the United States Air Force Academy concludes:
Length-weight tables at FishBase.org are not generally reliable and the on-line database contains dubious parameters. Assurance of quality probably will require a systematic review with more careful and comprehensive methods than those currently employed.
— Errors in Length-weight Parameters at FishBase.org[1]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d Errors in Length-weight Parameters at FishBase.org S. Cole-Fletcher, L. Marin-Salcedo, A. Rana, and M. Courtney. (2011). Cornell University Library.
References
- Froese, R. and D. Pauly, Editors. FishBase 2000: concepts, design and data sources (ICLARM, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines, 2000)
External links
- For early roots and possible future extensions see the German page.
Mirror sites:
