FishBase   is a repository of  information on the taxonomy, biology, ecology, occurrence and utilization of fish. It holds published information on almost all of the estimated 28,000 existing fish species. The information is arranged in 55 subject tables. It can be accessed through the Internet or installed on a PC from a CD-ROM.

At the heart of FishBase is an authoritative taxonomic fish classification established by W.N. Eschmeyer (California Acad. of Science). It ensures that all information is assigned to current scientific names, even if a publication uses an outdated name.

FishBase is a database for education and research on fish giving access to standardized data and explanatory text extracted from more than 19,000 sources such as books, journals and scientific publications. All information is referenced.

Many scientific institutions and fish specialists around the world have provided their own large  electronic databases or archives for display in FishBase.

Among the larger contributors are:

 

 

 

Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris,   Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Natural History Museum, London,  IUCN Red List of Endangered FishFAO Fish Catches,  FAO Aquaculture Production,  FAO database on fish introductions,  Eschmeyer's "Catalog of Fishes",

 

Large numbers of individual ichthyologists, aquarists and others have also donated their material to FishBase and are noted as individual contributors within the data. These include Dr.John Randall, and the Calypso Photolibrary and its Director, Gerald Jennings who have made contributions towards the pictorial aspect of FishBase, albeit tiny by comparison to the scale of the overall project.

Calypso recommends all who may have photographic or archive collections to contact FishBase and offer as much help as is possible.  

You will find FishBase on the Internet at

FishBase provides you with an overview on taxonomy, ecology, and distribution of the species and the possibility to search further on a broad range of topics.

For example, introduced species are often a major threat to native biodiversity. FishBase gives the user information on the origin of the introduction, the year, the reason for the introduction, as well as current status of the species in the country where it has been introduced. The introductions table could be used by conservationists, managers and aquarium hobbyists to know which species are present in their country so that unnecessary introductions can be prevented in the future.

http://www.fishbase.org has been developed at the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and many other institutional and individual partners. The project was made possible through the support of the European Commission (EC) of the European Union.

FishBase is also available on CD-ROM. It can be installed on a PC under WINDOWS 95 (or higher) with at least 32 MB RAM and 60 MB free hard disk space (recommended: 64 MB RAM and 600 MB disk space). While the database itself is in English, context-sensitive help can be displayed either in English or in French. Consult our WEB page at

http://www/fishbase.org

to find out about the latest version available. The price of FishBase on CD-ROM is US$ 95. This includes the CD-ROM (3), a manual and the cost of airmail. Payments can be made either through American Express Card or by check, payable to ICLARM and drawn from a US- or European-based bank.

Home Page: http://www.cgiar.org/iclarm