"We ended up having covered all the fish in the world, 27 thousand species.
So here we have a database which provides biological information, pictures,
all kinds of information about all the fish of the world. And it turned out
that far more people were interested in it than we initially anticipated,
and our most common user now is a U.S. school kid, who uses it to do
homework."
Fish Base contains thousands of reports, maps, and pictures. It includes
information useful to non-scientists, including anglers and recreational
divers.
Pauly says a key to making Fish Base accessible was to include common names.
He says scientific jargon had been the biggest barrier to everyday users.
"So if you wanted information about cod, you had to know the scientific name
gadus morhua. But in the mean time, we have put, what, 130 thousand common
names in 200 languages. And so people access the information through the
common names, which is what they know. And so it has become very popular
with regular folks."
You can find the database on the Web at www.fishbase.org.
Script for Monday, June 30, 2003
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org