1. Barcode of Life initiative Fish-BoL Workshop
6 June 2005 University of Guelph, Ontario Canada
Nicolas BAILLY
WorldFish Center Philippines Office, Los Baños

2. Available in DVD, CD-ROM and on the web (www.fishbase.org + 4 mirrors)
FishBase, a global public good developed as a decision-support system for conservation and management of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems.
Available in DVD, CD-ROM and on the web ( + 4 mirrors)
Book in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
Multi-language (13) on-line access (Main Pages)
16 Non-roman scripts for common names

3. FishBase and the private life of a fish …
Reproduction and Life History Maturity Spawning Eggs Larvae Broodstock Fry nursery Larval dynamics Larval speed
Morphology and Physiology Metabolism Gill area
Vision Disease Brain Abnormalities Ecotoxicology Swim mode
Distribution Occurrence FAO areas Country Ecosystem
Genetics & Aquaculture Electrophoresis Heritability Strains Introductions
Fish as Food Processing Ciguatera FAO catches Aquaculture (production)
Trophic Ecology Ecology Predators Food items Diet composition Food consumption Ration
Other Tables Pictures Keys Sounds
Class Order Family Species Common Name
Population Dynamics
Growth/Mortality L/W relations Maximum sizes Recruitment L/L relations Length frequency

4. Drown by numbers (as of 3rd June 2005)
28,598 species (incl. 219 with 322 subspecies = 28,920)
81,190 “synonyms”
207,403 common names in 264 languages
160,866 country records for 295 “countries”
108,813 ecosystem records for 379 ecosystems
53,388 FAO area records for 27 areas
12,157 morphology records
1,158 identification keys for 6,408 species
41,116 fish images and photos
36,129 bibliographic references
2 million occurrences (> 24,800 species, 43 museums)
4.48 million records (2 Gb; 180 database tables)

5. FishBase as a web service

6. FishBase basic structure
Species description and life history
Fish collections
Fish names
Biology Ecology Fisheries … FB
Fish literature
CoF
Collaborators

7. FishBase basic structure

10. xml file for common names

11. xml file for common names

14. Encoding of records in Table Species
After CoF,
Mai 2005

15. “Species” total 2000/2005 Fresh 13779 46.4% 747 59.1%
Drown by numbers again
“Species” total /2005
Fresh % %
Brackish % %
Marine % %
Total
After FB, June 2005 Miss 270 spp. 2004
After CoF, Mai 2005

16. Checking, validation, quality assurance
Internal checks by queries
Checks by specialists (taxonomy, other specialties)
Checks by area specialists
Cross-check with CoF
Classification: Nelson -> Eschmeyer + Authors Difficulty to coordinate all changes
Problem: what is to be complete?

17. Information systems as icebergs: optimal situation
Distinction between views for end-users … … and tables for specialists
Views for end-users (VEU)
VEU
VEU
VEU
VEU
VEU TS TS TS TS TS
Tables for specialists (TS)

18. FishBase identification tools
Quick identification through outlines down to Families
Quick identification through photos by Family, Country, Ecosystems
Dichotomous key computerised (FAO, Ichthyofaunas)
Matrix approach (computer-aided identification)

19. Biogeographic modelling
Occurrence points in can be mapped and used with available environmental parameters to predict other possible occurrences of the species through mapping and spatial modelling
Georeferenced records from 43 museum collections and survey data

20. Mapping in SAUP (Fisheries Centre, UBC, Vancouver)

21. Common Access and Interoperability
What is common access?
Accessing at the same time to databases covering the same topic
What is interoperability?
Accessing at the same time to databases covering complementary topics
The same topic for instance, fish collection records.
Complementary topics for instance, names and record collections

22. Common Access and Interoperability
Data providers
Common Access and Interoperability
Wrappers
Gadus morhua
User
Portal
Answer
Request
FishNet
1 to n

23. FishBase and Common Access
Data providers
FishBase and Common Access
User
FishBase
Gadus morhua
Answer
Data
Request
FishNet
1 to n

24. FishBase and Interoperability
Data providers
FishBase and Interoperability
User
FishBase
Gadus morhua
URLs
FishNet
Fish-BoL
1 to n

25. How to deep-link in FishBase

28. Lists of species by taxononmy, by country, by ecosystems, by FAO areas
What we can provide
Lists of species by taxononmy, by country, by ecosystems, by FAO areas
A fixed English common name
Deep-links to species pages or others to flesh the barcode
Diagnosis, description, photo*, other infromation as required
List of "synonyms" and common names
Link with traditional identification tools
Link to mapping system
To discuss: web services through xml
* Depending on author agreement

29. A new link from FishBase for users
What we expect
A new link from FishBase for users
Widen our collaborator network (new data, data check)
Importing the survey data
Complete our photo set (at least one photo per species)
Taking the opportunity to handle more taxonomic levels
To root the iceberg for the taxonomy management (concept approach = potential taxa)

30. Lessons learned in FishBase
‘Science first’ attitude
‘Yes’ attitude towards suggestions
Invite, accept and act on criticism
Keep in the limits of the project
Data quantity and quality first
Keep it simple, software keeps changing
Invest in people
Give more credit than expected

31. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FishBase Consortium Members
WorldFish Center
Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations
Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, Kiel
Swedish Museum of Natural History
Africamuseum, Tervuren
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

32. fishbase.org
fishbase.de
fishbase.fr
fishbase.se
fishbase.tw
fishbase.org.ph