Fishbase Activities at the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium

FishBase activities at the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium

Gert Boden, Guy G. Teugels † & Jos Snoeks

Royal Museum for Central Africa, Vertebrate Section, Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium

FishBase The Royal Museum for Central Africa

FishBase started in 1990 as an initiative by the European Commission. This database was developed as a tool for the transfer of information and knowledge on fishes to the developing countries. In 2000 the European Commission stopped its financing and a FishBase Consortium was founded in order to The Royal Museum for Central Africa (Africa Museum) was founded in 1898 after the success of a maintain and further develop the database. It consists of seven members, all complementary in their temporary exhibition about the Congo Free State, in that period a private territory of Leopold II, king specialization. of Belgium. Part of this exhibition was the ichthyological collection from the Congo basin, studied by George Albert Boulenger. In 1932, Max Poll was employed as the first ichthyologist of the museum, followed in 1962 by Dirk Thys van den Audenaerde. More important collections were made in Central Africa, but also in West Africa and West-Central Africa. This indicated the beginning of more pan-african studies, continued by various students and scientists. At this moment, the fish- collection of the Africa Museum contains about 1.000.000 specimens, of which more than 16.000 Since 1996: FishBase is released every year on CD-Rom. specimens are representing type-material. Since 1998: FishBase is available on the internet. www.fishbase.org Since 2003: FishBase is available on DVD.

Fig. 1: Search page of FishBase Fig. 4: View of the fish collection of the as starting point of the database. Africa Museum.

FishBase usage.

FishBase Usage over Time Fig. 2: Evolution of FishBase usage 9 900 8 800 between August 1998 and August 2003. 7 700 The Africa Museum houses one of the most comprehensive libraries on African freshwater fishes in 6 600 5 500 the world. New articles are constantly added to the library. 4 400

3 300 (thousands) User sessions Usersessions Hits (millions) Hits 2 200 1 100 0 0 Fig. 5: Reprints and copies of publications A 98 A 99 A 00 A 01 A 02 A 03 A 04 are ordered in alphabetical order by author Years (August) Oceania Australia and in systematical order by fish species. Africa South America Fig. 3: FishBase usage by continent North America (based on guestbook entries). FishBase on the internet is less used in the developing Asia countries, although it was primarly meant for them. The main reason is the Fig. 6: The Africa Museum has a

connection with the internet which is not Europe collection of journals about fish in general always reliable. and about African fish in particular.

Participation of the Africa Museum in FishBase: Complete and correct information on African freshwater fishes in FishBase

1. The availability of the fish-collection data of the Africa Museum in FishBase.

From the start, the collections were entered in a register. In 1987, a database was developed to register all these specimens. Since 1997, through a grant by an EC project, the Africa Museum started with the informatisation of all earlier records, which were only available on species-specific data sheets. This work was finished at the end of 2001 and all these data were sent to the FishBase Encoding Team in Los Baños, The Philippines, in order to make them available in FishBase. Every year new collections are sent to the museum and revisions are made. Therefore, the Africa Museum sends at least once a year an update of the ichthyological collection to FishBase.

2. Check the information on African freshwater fishes in FishBase.

The Africa Museum is integrating a synthesis of relevant articles, present in the library of ichthyology, into FishBase. Thanks to Remote Data Entry (RDE), we are able to correct and add new information in FishBase. The following steps are followed in this process:

1. Check the information already in FishBase. ICLARM, now called WorldFish Center, started in 1990 with the development of AB FishBase. A lot of species were entered, but only for species with great economic importance such as Clarias gariepinus , detailed information is present. For most species, only limited taxonomic data were entered and sometimes the available information is incorrect. Therefore, we first check the references already entered in FishBase to see if information is correct or not. 2. Add new information in FishBase. Using the publications present in the ichthyological library, we are adding new information not yet available in FishBase. The relevant publications are searched by their presence in CLOFFA (Check-list of the fresh- water fishes of Africa), in the Zoological Record and in Fish and Fisheries. With these three sources, we are able to make a very complete list of all articles published for a certain species. The articles are then screened and a synthesis of all relevant information is entered into FishBase. 3. Do a global check-up for the species. Erroneously listed countries, ecosystems, etc. can be removed.

3. Scanning of newly arrived journals. Fig. 7: The species summary page of Protopterus dolloi before (A) and after (B) screening relevant articles. 4. Interaction with FishBase users.

If FishBase users discover incorrect information or have questions about African freshwater fishes, they can contact FishBase. We will then check this incorrect information or try to give a satisfying answer to these questions.

5. Bringing FishBase to the public.

The Africa Museum provides FishBase demonstrations to visitors and scientists who spend some time at the Museum. It is also part of a guided tour for student groups (native and foreign) of different universities in Belgium. A special training programme will be set up in the future. Participations in scientific meetings is another way to create awareness amongst the end users.

Availability in FishBase of detailed information on African freshwater fishes for researchers, students, etc., especially for Africans who generally are lacking well documented libraries.