Editing FishBase (section)

==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>