The Science in Fish Base Rainer Froese Germany

The Science in Fish. Base Rainer Froese Germany rfroese@ifm-geomar. de

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 www. fishbase. org contains information on 29, 000 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?

Information systems as icebergs Views for end-users (VEU) VEU VEU VEU TS TS Tables for specialists (TS) TS

Depth Distribution of Sharks

Brains of Elasmobranchs

Brains of Deep Sea Fishes

Distribution of 20, 054 Fishes in Size-Trophic Level Space Occupation of Size-Troph Space

Distribution of Fishes in Size-Productivity Space Occupation of Size. Productivity Space

Who is Using it?

Where?

What?

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

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

What Else can Fish. Base Do? Invasive Species Aquarium Fishes which may Establish themselves in Hawaii (6 of 111) Name Species Length Doubling (cm) time (years) Score Established (n) already? Mozambique tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus 39 1. 4 – 4. 4 83 Guppy Poecilia reticulata 3. 5 0. 5 44 Green swordtail Xiphophorus hellerii 14 <1 23 Redbreast tilapia Tilapia rendalli 45 1. 4 – 4. 4 23 Redbelly tilapia Tilapia zillii 40 1. 4 – 4. 4 19 Wami tilapia Oreochromis hornorum 24 1. 4 – 4. 4 17 -

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

What Can You Do? l l Stop Overfishing Let them Spawn Don’t Eat Baby Fish Get the Fisher. Min ruler

Fish. Base can be utilized to produce simple, but effective posters: …. . customized for a fishery, a fishing area, fishing gear, 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

Greetings from the Fish. Base Team

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