Some Lessons from FishBase Rainer Froese Germany [email protected].

Some LessonsSome Lessonsfromfrom

FishBaseFishBaseRainer Froese

Germany [email protected]

The VisionThe Vision

Back in 1987, two scientists 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

19 years later www.fishbase.org contains information on 29,382 species Has over 1,000 citations in the scientific literature Has about 2 million visitors per month in the Internet

If these stocks 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

Years (August)

Hit

s p

er m

onth

(m

illi

ons)

March 2006:29 million hits1.7 million visits

The Race to 100 Million

1,000

10,000

100,000

1,000,000

10,000,000

100,000,000

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

Years (August)

Hit

s p

er m

onth

2008

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 2408 entries in the FishBase Guestbook, September 2005

Where?Where?

FishBase Users by Continent

North America

Europe

Asia

South America

Africa

Australia

Oceania

Based on 2408 entries in the FishBase Guestbook , September 2005

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

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

What Else can FishBase Do?

Invasive Species

Name Species Length (cm)

Doubling time (years)

Score (n)

Established already?

Mozambiquetilapia

Oreochromis mossambicus

39 1.4 – 4.4 83 Guppy Poecilia

reticulata3.5 0.5 44

Green swordtail

Xiphophorus hellerii

14 < 1 23 Redbreasttilapia

Tilapia rendalli 45 1.4 – 4.4 23 Redbelly tilapia

Tilapia zillii 40 1.4 – 4.4 19 Wami tilapia Oreochromis

hornorum24 1.4 – 4.4 17 -

Aquarium Fishes which may Establish themselves in Hawaii (6 of 111)

More Applications

Trends in Global Catches (Froese and Pauly 2003)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1951 1956 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996

Years

Pe

rce

nt

of

Wo

rld

Fis

he

rie

s

26%5.1 years

38%

4.3 years

31%5.0 years

22%4.1 years

Undeveloped

Developing

Fully exploited

Overfished

Collapsed

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.

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Fish RulersFish 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 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

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 Greetings from the FishBase TeamTeam

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Thanks to ourThanks to our Partners and Sponsors Partners and Sponsors