View source for FishBase

{{Short description|Biological database about fish}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox biodatabase
| title = FishBase
| logo = [[File:FishBase logo.gif]]
| description = A large and extensively accessed biological database about fish
| scope = Comprehensive species data, including taxonomy, biometrics, behaviour, distribution, habitats and photos
| organism = Adult fish species ([[Fish#"True fish" or "finfish"|finfish]])
| center = [[GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel]], FishBase Consortium coordinator
| laboratory = 
| author = [[Daniel Pauly]], [[Rainer Froese]]
| pmid = 
| released = 
| standard = 
| format = 
| url = {{URL|http://www.fishbase.us|fishbase.us}}
| download = 
| webservice = 
| sql = 
| sparql = 
| webapp = 
| standalone = Historic versions available on CD
| license = [[Creative Commons license|CC-BY-NC]] for data; various levels of licensing for media files (pictures, sounds, ...) to be checked case by case
| versioning = Every even month of the year
| frequency = Continuously updated
| curation = FishBase Consortium
| bookmark = Yes
| version = Latest version: 04/2025
}}

'''FishBase''' is a [[Global Species Database|global species database]] of [[fish]] species (specifically [[Fish#"True fish" or "finfish"|finfish]]).<ref>Froese R and Pauly D (eds) (2000) [http://fishbase.org/manual/english/contents.htm ''FishBase 2000: concepts, design and data sources'']. ICLARM. Philippines.</ref> It is the largest and most extensively accessed [[Database|online database]] on adult finfish on the web.<ref name="Pew">[http://www.pewenvironment.org/research-programs/marine-fellow/id/8589941905 Marine Fellow: Rainer Froese] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221164050/http://www.pewenvironment.org/research-programs/marine-fellow/id/8589941905 |date=21 December 2013 }} ''Pew Environment Group''.</ref> Over time it has "evolved into a dynamic and versatile ecological tool" that is widely cited in scholarly publications.<ref>Stergiou KI and Tsikliras AC (2006) [http://ichthyology.bio.auth.gr/files/tsikliras/d/d3.pdf Scientific impact of FishBase: A citation analysis] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008223552/http://ichthyology.bio.auth.gr/files/tsikliras/d/d3.pdf |date=8 October 2011 }} In: Palomares MLD, Stergiou KI and Pauly D (eds.), ''Fishes in Databases and Ecosystems''. ''[[UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries|UBC Fisheries Centre]]'', Research reports '''14'''(4): 2–6.</ref><ref>[http://www.fishbase.us/References/FBRefList.php References Citing FishBase] FishBase. Last modified 5 July 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2011.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Humphries |first1=Austin |last2=Dimarchopoulou |first2=Donna |last3=Stergiou |first3=Konstantinos |last4=Tsikliras |first4=Athanassios |last5=Palomares |first5=Deng |last6=Bailly |first6=Nicolas |last7=Nauen |first7=Cornelia |last8=Luna |first8=Susan |last9=Banasihan |first9=Lyra |last10=Froese |first10=Rainer |last11=Pauly |first11=Daniel |date=2023 |title=Measuring the scientific impact of FishBase after three decades |url=https://donnadim.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Humphries_etal_2023_FB_citation_analysis.pdf |journal=Cybium |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=213–224 |doi=10.26028/cybium/2023-002}}</ref>

FishBase provides comprehensive species data, including information on [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]], geographical distribution, [[biometrics]] and [[Morphology (biology)|morphology]], behaviour and habitats, ecology and [[population dynamics]] as well as reproductive, metabolic and genetic data. There is access to tools such as [[Ecological pyramid|trophic pyramid]]s, [[identification key]]s, [[Biogeography|biogeographical]] modelling and fishery statistics and there are direct species level links to information in other databases such as [[LarvalBase]], [[GenBank]], the [[IUCN Red List]] and the [[Catalog of Fishes]].<ref>Gert B and Snoeks J (2004) [http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/76736.pdf#page=48 "FishBase: encyclopaedia and research tool"] Page 48, VLIZ Special Publication 17, Brugge, Belgium.</ref>

{{As of|2024|02}}, FishBase included descriptions of 36,100 [[species]] and subspecies, with 332,100 [[common name]]s, 65,300 pictures, and references to 67,600 works in the [[scientific literature]]. The site has about 700,000 visits per month.<ref>According to the [http://www.fishbase.us FishBase] web page, accessed November 2023.</ref>

==History==
The origins of FishBase go back to the 1970s, when the [[Fisheries science|fisheries scientist]] [[Daniel Pauly]] found himself struggling to test a hypothesis on how the growing ability of fish was affected by the size of their gills.<ref name=Bakun>Bakun A (2011) [https://books.google.com/books?id=baUySByM5DIC "The oxygen constraint"] Pages 11–23. In: Villy Christensen and Jay Maclean (Eds.) ''Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries: A Global Perspective'', Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-13022-6}}.</ref> Hypotheses, such as this one, could be tested only if large amounts of empirical data were available.<ref name="Palomares and Bailly">Palomares MLD and Bailly N (2011) [https://books.google.com/books?id=baUySByM5DIC "Organizing and disseminating marine biodiversity information: the Fishbase and SeaLifeBase story"] Pages 24–46. In: Villy Christensen and Jay Maclean (Eds.) ''Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries: A Global Perspective'', Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-13022-6}}.</ref> At the time, [[fisheries management]] used analytical models which required estimates for fish growth and [[Fish mortality|mortality]].<ref>Monro JL (2011) [https://books.google.com/books?id=baUySByM5DIC "Assessment of exploited stock of tropical fishes: an overview"] Pages 171–188. In: Villy Christensen and Jay Maclean (Eds.) ''Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries: A Global Perspective'', Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-13022-6}}.</ref> It can be difficult for [[fishery scientist]]s and managers to get the information they need on the species that concern them, because the relevant facts can be scattered across and buried in numerous journal articles, reports, newsletters and other sources. It can be particularly difficult for people in developing countries who need such information. Pauly believed that the only practical way fisheries managers could access the volume of data they needed was to assemble and consolidate all the data available in the published literature into some central and easily accessed repository.<ref name="Palomares and Bailly" /><ref name=AFS >[http://www.larvalbase.org/Downloads/ELHSMay2002.pdf LarvalBase: A Global Information System on Fish Larvae] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328031508/http://www.larvalbase.org/Downloads/ELHSMay2002.pdf |date=28 March 2012 }} ''American Fisheries Society'', Early Life History Section Newsletter, May 2002, '''23'''(2): 7–9.</ref> Such a database would be particularly useful if the data has also been standardised and validated.<ref name="Palomares and Bailly"/> This would mean that when scientists or managers need to test a new hypothesis, the available data will already be there in a validated and accessible form, and there will be no need to create a new dataset and then have to validate it.<ref>Froese R (2011) [https://books.google.com/books?id=baUySByM5DIC "The science in FishBase"] Pages 47–54. In: Villy Christensen and Jay Maclean (Eds.) ''Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries: A Global Perspective'', Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-13022-6}}.</ref>

Pauly recruited [[Rainer Froese]], and the beginnings of a software database along these lines was encoded in 1988. This database, initially confined to tropical fish, became the prototype for FishBase. FishBase was subsequently extended to cover all [[finfish]], and was launched on the [[World Wide Web|Web]] in August 1996. It is now the largest and most accessed online database for fish in the world.<ref name="Palomares and Bailly" /> In 1995 the first [[CD-ROM]] was released as "FishBase 100". Subsequent CDs have been released annually. The software runs on [[Microsoft Access]] which operates only on [[Microsoft Windows]].

FishBase covers adult finfish, but does not detail the early and juvenile stages of fish. In 1999 a complementary database, called [[LarvalBase]], went online under the supervision of Bernd Ueberschär. It covers [[ichthyoplankton]] and the juvenile stage of fishes, with detailed data on fish [[Fish egg|eggs]] and [[larva]]e, fish [[Identification (biology)|identification]], as well as data relevant to the rearing of young fish in [[aquaculture]]. Given FishBase's success, there was a demand for a database covering forms of aquatic life other than finfish. This resulted, in 2006, in the birth of [[SeaLifeBase]].<ref name="Palomares and Bailly" /> The long-term goal of SeaLifeBase is to develop an information system modelled on FishBase, but including all forms of aquatic life, both marine and freshwater, apart from the finfish which FishBase specialises in. Altogether, there are about 300,000 known species in this category.<ref name=home>[http://www.sealifebase.org/home/pages/index.htm SeaLifeBase – home page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814093158/http://www.sealifebase.org/home/pages/index.htm |date=14 August 2011 }}. Retrieved 21 July 2011.</ref>

==Organization==
As awareness of FishBase has grown among fish specialists, it has attracted over 2,480 contributors and collaborators. Since 2000 FishBase has been supervised by a consortium of nine international institutions. The FishBase consortium has grown to twelve members. The [[GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel|GEOMAR – Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research for Ocean Research Kiel]] (GEOMAR) in Germany, functions as the coordinating body<ref>[http://www.fishbase.org/home.htm FishBase] Home page. Retrieved 28 November 2018</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.ifm-geomar.de/index.php?id=5118#FishBase | title=Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Fisheries: FishBase| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324151446/http://www.ifm-geomar.de/index.php?id=5118#FishBase| archive-date=24 March 2012| publisher=IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel| access-date=27 January 2014}}</ref> and, since February 2017, Quantitative Aquatics, Inc. functions as the administrative body.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Us – Quantitative Aquatics, Inc. |url=https://www.q-quatics.org/about-us/ |access-date=2023-09-22 |language=en-US}}</ref> 

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto; background-color: #F2F2F2; "
| colspan="2" | {{center|'''The FishBase Consortium'''}}
|-
| rowspan="12" | [[File:IFM Geomar.jpg|thumb|center|{{center|The [[GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel]] coordinates the FishBase Consortium<ref>[http://www.ifm-geomar.de/index.php?L=1 Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707015410/http://www.ifm-geomar.de/index.php?L=1 |date=7 July 2011 }} (IFM-GEOMAR). Main web site.</ref>}}]]
|-
| [[Aristotle University of Thessaloniki]], Thessaloniki, Greece<ref>[http://ichthyology.bio.auth.gr/index.php?q=fishbase/auth Fishbase and Aristotle University] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327195836/http://ichthyology.bio.auth.gr/index.php?q=fishbase%2Fauth |date=27 March 2012 }} ''Aristotle University of Thessaloniki'', 5 August 2006.</ref>
|-
| [[Chinese Academy of Fishery Science]], Beijing, China
|-
| [[UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries|Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries]], [[University of British Columbia]], Vancouver, Canada
|-
| [[Food and Agriculture Organization]], Rome, Italy
|-
| {{lang|fr|[[Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle]]|italic=no}}, Paris, France
|-
| [[Royal Museum for Central Africa]], Tervuren, Belgium
|-
| [[Swedish Museum of Natural History]], Stockholm, Sweden
|-
| [[WorldFish]], Penang, Malaysia
|-
|[[Federal University of Sergipe|Universidade Federal de Sergipe]], São Cristóvão – SE, Brazil
|-
|[[University of Western Australia]], Perth, Australia
|-
|[https://www.q-quatics.org/ Quantitative Aquatics, Incorporated], Laguna, Philippines
|-
|}

{{clear}}

==See also==
*[[Catalog of Fishes]]
*[[List of online encyclopedias]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Bailly N (2010) [http://www.fishbase.us/Nomenclature/FBCofFNames.php Why there may be discrepancies in the assessment of scientific names between the Catalog of Fishes and FishBase] Version 2, 6 May 2010.
* Bailly N, Reyes Jr R, Atanacio R and Froese R (2010) [http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/3743/1/Bailly%20et%20al,%20bioidentify.pdf "Simple Identification Tools in FishBase"] In: Nimis PL and Vignes Lebbe R. (eds) ''Tools for Identifying Biodiversity: Progress and Problems'', pages 31–36. {{ISBN|978-88-8303-295-0}}.
* Christensen V, CJ Walters, R Ahrens, J Alder, J Buszowski, LB Christensen, WWL Cheung, J Dunne, R Froese, V Karpouzi, K Kaschner, K Kearney, S Lai, V Lam, MLD Palomares, A Peters-Mason, C Piroddia, JL Sarmiento, J Steenbeek, R Sumaila, R Watson, D Zeller and D Pauly (2009) [http://www2.fisheries.com/files/Christensen_etal_2009.pdf Database-driven models of the world's Large Marine Ecosystems] ''Ecological Modelling'', '''220'''(17): 1984–1996.
* Froese R (2011) [https://books.google.com/books?id=baUySByM5DIC&q=Ecosystem+Approaches+to+Fisheries:+A+Global+Perspective "The science in Fishbase"] In: [[Villy Christensen]] and Jay Maclean (eds) ''Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries: A Global Perspective'', Cambridge University Press, pages 47–54. {{ISBN|978-0-521-13022-6}}.
* Froese R and Pauly D (eds) (2000) [http://fishbase.org/manual/english/contents.htm ''FishBase 2000: concepts, design and data sources''] ICLARM, Philippines.
* Froese R and Pauly D (1994) [https://ifm-geomar.academia.edu/RainerFroese/Papers/541863/Fishbase_as_a_tool_for_comparing_the_life_history_patterns_of_flatfish# "Fishbase as a tool for comparing the life history patterns of flatfish"] ''Netherlands Journal of Sea Research'', '''32'''(3/4): 235–239.
* Nauen CE (2004) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228492952_A_public_electronic_archive_on_the_world's_fishes_in_support_of_sustainable_fisheries A public electronic archive on the world’s fishes in support of sustainable fisheries]  CTA/Commonwealth Secretariat Seminar, Expert Meeting on ACP-EU Fisheries Relations, Brussels.
* Palomares, M.L.D., N. Bailly and D. Pauly (2009) [https://web.archive.org/web/20120217032015/http://www.seaaroundus.org/researcher/dpauly/PDF/2009/Books%26Chapters/FishBaseSeaLifeBaseAndDatabaseDrivenEcosystemModeling.pdf FishBase, SeaLifeBase and database-driven ecosystem modeling] p.&nbsp;156–158. In: M.L.D. Palomares, L. Morissette, A. Cisnero-Montemayor, D. Varkey, M. Coll and C. Piroddi (eds.) Ecopath 25 Years Conference Proceedings: Extended Abstracts. UBC Fisheries Centre Research Reports '''17'''(3).
* Pauly D (1997) [https://web.archive.org/web/20120217030630/http://www.seaaroundus.org/researcher/dpauly/PDF/1997/OtherItems/TheScienceInFishBase.pdf "The Science in FishBase"] ''EC Fisheries Cooperation Bulletin,'' '''10'''(2): 4–6.
* Robertson R (2008) [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00519.x/full "Global biogeographical data bases on marine fishes: caveat emptor"] ''Diversity and Distributions,'' '''14'''(6): 891–892.
* Ueberschär B and Teltow M (1999) [http://travel-net-24.com/norwegen/fishbase%20eu.pdf "FishBase goes fishing"]{{dead link|date=October 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} ''Bulletin'', '''12'''(2–3): 38–39.

==External links==
{{Wikidata property|P938}}
* [https://fishbase.de/home.htm FishBase online]
* [https://fishdb.sinica.edu.tw/ The Fish Database of Taiwan]
* [https://fishbase.de/tools/region/FB4Africa/FB4Africa.html FishBase for Africa]
* [http://artedi.nrm.se/FishBlog/ FishBase FishBlog (FishBase Sverige informerar)]
* [https://archive.today/20130202045717/http://www.sciencenewsline.com/biology/2010090300004254.html?continue=y FishBase Celebrates 20 Year Anniversary in Kiel] ''Science newsline'', 3 September 2010.
* [https://www.bluezooaquatics.com/resources.asp?show=1 Rainer Froese on FishBase] ''Blue Zoo''.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110928090606/http://www.africamuseum.be/research/natural-sciences/biology/vertebrates/ichtyology/doc/morphology%20and%20id Fish Morphology and Identification in FishBase] ''Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA Tervuren)'', Presentation at FishBase and Fish Taxonomy Training Session 2007.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111008223749/http://ichthyology.bio.auth.gr/files/stergiou/Theta/Theta44.pdf The 6th FishBase Consortium meeting and 3rd Mini FishBase Symposium] ''FishBytes'', 2005.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120328012226/http://www.cafs.ac.cn/english/news-0.html 2008 FishBase Symposium] ''[[Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences]]'', 2 September 2008.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110927161450/http://64.95.130.5/Fish_on_Line.htm Fish on line] Daniel Pauly, Rainer Froese and Maria Lourdes Palomares. A draft guide to learning and teaching ichthyology using the FishBase information system. Updated 17 January 2005.

{{Fishery science topics|expanded=science}}

[[Category:Ichthyology]]
[[Category:Online taxonomy databases]]
[[Category:Fisheries databases]]
[[Category:Biology websites]]
[[Category:Multilingual websites]]