In over 30 years of continuous operation and development, FishBase has become one of the largest and most extensively accessed online public resources in the history of scientific research. A new study reveals it is also one of the most highly cited databases.
Tag: FishBase
International FishBase and SeaLifeBase Symposium – 2023

Africa Museum in Tervuren. Photo by Jean Housen, Wikimedia Commons.
The Sea Around Us partner, FishBase, is the largest global information system on fishes. It provides encyclopaedical information on all described fishes and includes many tools for scientists in a large array of ichthyological disciplines. With about 700,000 visits per month, it is the most successful database on any group of living organisms.
SeaLifeBase complements the success of FishBase and has become an important platform for information on non-fish marine organisms.
A fisheries scientist in Penang, Malaysia
By Daniel Pauly
In early September 2022, I found myself on the island of Penang, Malaysia, where WorldFish, an international research center focusing on tropical fish culture, is headquartered. WorldFish is the new name of the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), previously located in Manila, the Philippines, of which I was a staff member from 1979 to 1994, and a consultant for five more years. The occasion was the annual meeting of the FishBase Consortium, whose members ensure that FishBase and related databases and products remain up to date and relevant to multiple constituencies worldwide.
Daniel Pauly’s biography now available in English
Two years after the release of Daniel Pauly: Un Océan de Combats, the English version of the biography of the Sea Around Us principal investigator is now available in bookstores.
Titled The Ocean’s Whistleblower: The Remarkable Life and Work of Daniel Pauly, the 342-page tome goes over Dr. Pauly’s scientific career as the whistleblower who alerted the public about the devastation caused to marine ecosystems by the global fishing industry.
Paris to host the FishBase and SeaLifeBase Anniversary Symposium
Prominent researchers in the fields of biology and fisheries science are set to gather on September 6-7, 2021, in Paris to celebrate the 30th anniversary of FishBase and the 15th anniversary of SeaLifeBase.
Hosted at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, on the banks of the river Seine, the FishBase and SeaLifeBase Symposium will bring together renowned scientists such as Daniel Pauly, Rainer Froese, Jessica Meeuwig, Jos Snoeks, among others, who will present the different uses of FishBase and SeaLifeBase in the fields of ecology, biogeography, fisheries, taxonomy and aquariology.