FishBase Global DataBank and Tool

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FishBaseGlobal DataBankand Tool
Rainer Froese Germany rfroese_at_ifm-geomar.de
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The 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

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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

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If these hits were stocks
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It Looks Like This
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And This
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Where is the Science?
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Who is Using it?
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Where?
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What?
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About 10,000 visitors per month
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Where is the Science?85 ISI Citations, 3 in
Nature, 2 in Science (June 2002)
IT
June 2002
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Google Scholar, April 2006 1610 citations,
including 5 in Nature and 7 in Science
(2,390 citations in June 2007)
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Link-Analysis
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(Science 1998)
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19/32
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Fish Rulers
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Under The Hood
Lessons Evolve or Go Extinct

• From 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

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General Principles
Lessons Spirit

• 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

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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,

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Lessons Operating Mode

• 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)

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Future Plans
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

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Computer-generated AquaMap for Mola mola
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Expert-edited AquaMap for Mola mola
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Marine Biodiversity(5,222 species)
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Future Plans
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

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Greetings from the FishBase Team
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Thanks to FishBase Partners and Sponsors