Project R-16036

FishBase / SeaLifeBase (Research)

FishBase, a global biodiversity information system on finfishes (www.fishbase.org), is a knowledge resource for the management and conservation of fishes. It is the largest and most frequently accessed online database on fishes. The FishBase Consortium scientifically guides the development and functioning of FishBase and SeaLifeBase, a similar information platform for marine organisms other than fishes with a focus on policy-relevant species. FishBase is an intensively used resource in fish parasitology, rendering parasitologists among the users most frequently citing FishBase. Conversely, the FishBase tools that pertain to fish parasites and diseases are underdeveloped compared to other applications within the database. Hence, parasitologists mainly use FishBase to find information on fishes but not on parasites. They rarely contribute data themselves to FishBase, and new fish-related results in parasitological literature go largely unnoticed. This also relates to, and exacerbates, the limited extent to which biodiversity databases of hosts and their pathogens are, in general, interoperable. The information they contain on aquatic parasites is far from complete. In collaboration with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, an observer within the FishBase Consortium, this network of national and international partners will support the FishBase Consortium in: (1) updating information on host-parasite links underlying parasitological and pathological tools within FishBase, and expanding these tools for diagnostics; (2) mainstreaming information on fish (parasites) in response to priorities proposed by stakeholders; and (3) developing (inter)national ichthyo(parasito)logical capacity through training and awareness raising. This project builds on the expertise of 22 Flemish and 48 international partners, encompassing stakeholders from universities, natural history institutions, other governmental research institutes, public aquariums, and the policy, non-profit and private sectors.

01 January 2026 - 31 December 2028