Some Lessons from FishBase Rainer Froese Germany

The Vision l Back in 1987, two scientists had an idea… è Create a database with key-information on 200 commercial fish species è Use it for research è Make it available to 500 fisheries managers in developing countries l 19 years later è contains information on 29,382 species è Has over 1,000 citations in the scientific literature è Has about 2 million visitors per month in the Internet

If these stocks were Stocks…

The Race to 100 Million 2008

It Looks Like This…

And This

Where is the Science?

Who is Using it?

Where?

What?

About 10,000 visitors per month

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

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

personal pages enterprise companies other private institutions international commissions/consortia info portals, references/search archives, blogs Link-Analysis

What Else can FishBase Do? Invasive Species NameSpeciesLength (cm) Doubling time (years) Score (n) Established already? Mozambique tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus –  GuppyPoecilia reticulata  Green swordtail Xiphophorus hellerii 14< 123  Redbreast tilapia Tilapia rendalli451.4 –  Redbelly tilapia Tilapia zillii401.4 –  Wami tilapiaOreochromis hornorum – Aquarium Fishes which may Establish themselves in Hawaii (6 of 111)

More Applications Trends in Global Catches (Froese and Pauly 2003)

FishBase can be utilized to produce simple, but effective posters: ….. customized for a fishery, a fishing area, fishing gear, fish market, etc. fish market, etc. A simple poster showing the actual lengths of fish species at first maturity can be a useful management tool. Posted in public places (e.g. public market), consumers can compare the size of the fish they buy with the pictures in the poster and know whether the fish has reached maturity. 19/32

Fish Rulers

Under The Hood FishBase Structure Under the Hood

Design Principles Do not over-normalize Avoid (hide) codes Dedicated fields vs free-text fields `Science and Data first´ approach Transparency (reference, entered, modified, date) Strategic decisions about data (comparative advantage, importance, future maintenance) Under the Hood

Under The Hood From DataEase to MS Access to MySQL to ??? From HTML to Cold Fusion to PHP to ??? 6 mirrors around the world, not enough for load- balancing, maybe not sufficientwww.ZoneEdit.com 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 Spirit

Business Model `Champion´: Rainer Froese Key supporters: Daniel Pauly & Cornelia Nauen Institutions: –ICLARM –Since 2000: FishBase Consortium Donors: –European Commission –Sloan, Germany –Pew, USGS, NRDC, Taiwan, Australia, …

Strong leadership by one person Lose oversight by Consortium Full-time data entry by team of specialists; full-time programmers Large network of additional contributors (mostly photos & corrections) Operating Mode

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

Greetings from the FishBase Team

32/32

Thanks to our Partners and Sponsors