The FishBase project is a large, international, non-profit venture which
started in 1989 and whose latest product, FishBase 2000 (see www.fishbase.org)
covers essentially all the fish in the world - at least in terms of
nomenclature. In terms of biology and ecology the coverage is, however, rather
spotty and it is paradoxically in the well-studied temperate areas that the
coverage is most incomplete, at least relative to the available literature. The
reason for this is that FishBase was funded by the European Commission to cover
countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (‘ACP’) that are
associated with the European Union.
For FishBase to realize its potential as the integrated, computerized
system of fish most useful to the global ichthyological community, it requires
input from users, including students. Thus you are encouraged to contribute to
FishBase, notably by sending reprints or photocopies of material used for your
analyses, as well as other information which you think should be incorporated
(with complete sources!). You are also welcome to submit photos or slides whose
originals would be returned to you after they have been scanned. See ‘How to
become a collaborator and why’ for details on the manners in which such
contributions are acknowledged; also note that you retain all rights to any
submitted photo.