Distribution Database of Inshore Economic Marine Fishes of Taiwan
SHAO, Kwang-Tsao and Shen-Chi WANG
Abstract: The total number of fish in Taiwan include 233 families and 2357 species.
Most of them are marine fish, 2300 species. Their distribution database in Taiwan
waters have been established and now can be accessed interactively on the internet.
(http: //fishdb.izas.sinica.edu.tw). The database was constructed on the GRASS and
Informix Online with dbSQL interface. The user can easily check the actual
distribution areas of each species on the map (in a grid system, 10' on each axis) or
obtain a species list distribution for each grid. For economic fish within 12 nautical
miles from the coastline, 404, 304, 290, 370, 528, 208 species have been recorded in
the north, north-eastern, south-eastern, south, south-western, and north-western parts
of Taiwan respectively. The database contains scientific and common names,
localities, months, fishery methods and abundance data. The specimen photo and
description of each species including morphological characters, ecological habitats or
geographical distribution throughout the world can be further browsed on the WWW.
Original fish data were collected region by region every year. This project was
support by the Council of Agriculture during 1990-1996 to promote the utilization,
management and conservation of coastal fishery resources in Taiwan.
There are many different kinds of biological related databases. The database presented here is
the one related to fish taxonomy, ecology and distribution. The purposes for establishing such a
biological or taxonomic database is not only for our own research need in facilitating data
management and utilization, but also to promote scientific exchange, education and propagation as
well as the application on the sustainable fisheries. Basically, there are five kinds of taxonomic
databases: curatorial (specimen), biogeographic (distribution), nomenclature (synonym),
bibliographic (literature) and descriptive (characters) database. Among these databases, curatorial
and distributional databases should be created and maintained by local scientists in each different
country (area). The nomenclature, description and bibliographical databases can be handled by
few leading museums or institutions globally. Taxonomists have the responsibility to help or to
carry out the database work under the assistance of information engineering by programmers.
Figure 1 show the homepage of the "Fish Database in Taiwan" and the grid system in six regions.
This database was developed in the past few years at the Laboratory of Fish Ecology and
Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica. It contains the following subtitles, most of them
already can be accessed through WWW [http: //fishdb.izas.sinica.edu.tw].
1. Introduction
2. Distribution Database of Inshore Economic Fishes of Taiwan
3. Distribution Database of Coastal Fishes of Taiwan
4. Distribution Database of Freshwater and Estuary Fishes of Taiwan
5. Curatorial Database of Fish Specimens deposited at Museum of Institute of Zoology, Academia
Sinica
6. Inquiring System for Chinese Fish names of the World Fishes
7. Most Update Version of Fish Checklist of Taiwan & Its' Changing History
8. Bibliographic Database of Fish Taxonomic, Ecological or Distributional Related Literatures in
Taiwan
9. Basic and General Information of Each Fish Species Including Specimen Photo
10. Fish Database of South China Sea (Pratas Island, and Spratly Island)
11. Fish Database of Kingmen & Machu (near coastal line of Fuchien Province)
This paper mainly introduces the database of item 2 above and its link with item 9.
All databases were established by using ACCESS 7.0. These fish distributional
databases now can be accessed interactively on the internet. They were constructed on
the GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis and Support System) and Informix
Online with dbSQL interface. Users can easily check the actual distribution areas of
each fish species on the map and get a species list distributed for each grid of coastal
waters around Taiwan. The database contains fish scientific names, Chinese names,
both English and Chinese common names, localities (in a grid system, 10' each),
seasons (months), fishery methods, and abundance data. Four categories of abundance
data: abundant, common, occasional or rare for each month can even be plotted or
marked by different colors on the map for each fish species. The specimen photos and
detail descriptions of each species including morphological characters, ecological
habitats, or geographical distribution throughout the world are also provided for
further browsing on the WWW. Original fish data were collected both from
fishermen's questionnaires and our own field work intensively on the basis of one
region per year. For economic fishes, we already completed all data in the north,
north-eastern, south-eastern, south, south-western, and north-western parts of Taiwan.
Total numbers of economically important fish species recorded in the above regions
are 404, 304, 290, 370, 528, and 208 respectively. This project was supported by the
Council of Agriculture during 1990-1996 in order to promote the utilization,
management, and conservation of coastal fishery resources in Taiwan. Table 1
describe the six subdivided geographical ranges, survey period, survey results and the
quantity of data records for each region. In total, more than 600 economical species
with >200,000 data records have been accumulated so far.
Table 1. Geographical division of six inshore waters around
Taiwan and their survey years and results.
Code
Year (July-June)
1
1990-1991
2
Area-Boundary
Number of
(family/genus/species)
Records
North-Tamshui to
Bitouchiaw
94/214/404
17,208
1991-1992
South-Pintung County &
Bashi Channel
90/215/370
35,722
3
1992-1993
Southeast-including Green
Isl., Orchid Isl.
78/176/290
28,384
4
1993-1994
Northeast - South of
Bitouchiaw to Shihtiping in
Hwalien
81/188/304
40,736
5
1994-1995
Southwest-Kaoshiung to
Changhwa including Penghu
94/249/528
83,269
6
1995-1996
Northwest - Tamshui estuary
to Changhwa
69/135/208
16,824
Figure 2 show the flow chart of using this database. For inquiring the actual
distribution map of each economical fish species, there are three different ways to
enter: (1) directly inquiry from map, i.e. click one fishing area (grid) on the map to get
a checklist of fish occurred in that particular area, then, pick up the species; (2)
directly type in the scientific name, Chinese name or common name of one inquired
species; (3) for general users, the species can be obtained from sequentially selecting
the general appearance (contour line) of fish family, then select the right species based
on the specimen color photos of all species in that family in Taiwan.
Using the mouse to click the desired grid twice, then the combination conditions for
fishing methods (25 kinds of gears), abundance (four categories: abundant, A;
common, C; occasional, O; and rare, R), and month (12 months) could be assigned or
simply using the default, without any assignment. The coding system for each
grid is designed as follows: each grid has its unique five digit number. The first digit
represents the investigated area of that year (1: north, 2: south, 3: southeast, 4:
northeast, 5: southwest including Penghu, 6: northwest Taiwan). The following four
digits are the code for that grid based on its longitude and latitude. The first two digits
was taken from the two central digits of the "longitude" on the upper-left corner of
that grid. Likewise, the latter two digits was taken from the two central digits of
"latitude" of the same corner of that grid. For example, grid "0145" represents the grid
surrounded by longitude 120º 10' to 120º 20' and latitude 24º 40' to 24º 50'. The
location on the left corner is 120º 10' and 24º 50'.
After getting a species list of that grid, users can select one species and then seek the
following further information:
1. Plot the distribution map of that species in entire water area around Taiwan, or to get the map
month by month (i.e., 12 maps). The abundance differences among each grid can be seen and
compared directly by their color difference.
2. Plot the monthly variation histogram of one single species for one selected grid.
3. Obtain general information of that species including morphological character, its distribution in
Taiwan, ecological habitat, fisheries and specimen photo.
4. Obtain basic identification or taxonomic information of that species, including family name,
family number, Chinese name, original descriptor, published year, world geographical distribution,
habitat, original genus name and depth etc.
The above information can also be accessed through directly type in the fish name
(either scientific name or common name) or using selection mode to pick the right
species from displayed species list which were installed previously in alphabetical
order. For those users who are not familiar with fish name, the species can be
searched from a series of fish pictures. Firstly, select one family from total of 495
family pictures, then choose the right species by its specimen color photo out of all
species of that family which occur in Taiwan waters.
To establish the database on the Internet actually have already made fish data or
study results public and this work has less scientific merit. So not many taxonomists
would like to do this kind of service work. On the other hand, to actively provide local
fish faunistic data in order to merge country data into some global databases is very
important because users can easily obtain updated regional fish information through
world leading databases, such as FishBase (CD-ROM) produced from ICARM. The
first author is one of the collaborator of FishBase and has the responsibility to actively
provide update fish data of Taiwan to the FishBase. There are four different
approaches to export our country data to FishBase: file transfer, forms, reprints or
unpublished data, and photos. Species 2000, a project for indexing the world's known
species on the Internet, also links the FishBase to get fish taxonomic information.
Finally, we hope that our experiences of building fish database in Taiwan can be
used in helping fish taxonomists in other Asian-Oceanic Countries to build up their
similar databases. Thus everyone can get the most recent updated fish distribution
data for the entire world very easily on the Internet.