Welcome to FISH-BOL!
The Fish Barcode of Life Initiative (FISH-BOL), is a global effort to coordinate an assembly of a standardised reference sequence library for all fish species, one that is derived from voucher specimens with authoritative taxonomic identifications. The benefits of barcoding fishes include facilitating species identification for all potential users, including taxonomists; highlighting specimens that represent a range expansion of known species; flagging previously unrecognized species; and perhaps most importantly, enabling identifications where traditional methods are not applicable.
The Fish Barcode of Life effort is creating a valuable public resource in the form of an electronic database containing DNA barcodes, images, and geospatial coordinates of examined specimens. The database contains linkages to voucher specimens, information on species distributions, nomenclature, authoritative taxonomic information, collateral natural history information and literature citations. FISH-BOL thus complements and enhances existing information resources, including FishBase and various genomics databases.
Map showing major fisheries regions of the Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations (FAO)
About FISHBOL.org
FISHBOL.org is the initial site of an ongoing effort to bring the information gathered through this initiative to the both its participants and the broader community. It functions as a portal to BoLD (Barcode of Life Database), and as an information resources for the community at large. If you have any questions or suggestions for the site please contact Paul Hebert or Bob Hanner.
The layout of the site is as follows;
- Home: Introduction to the Fish Barcode of Life Initiative (FISH-BOL).
- Vision: Aims and background information for FISH-BOL.
- People: The organisational structure of FISHBOL and the relevant contacts.
- Progress: A breakdown of the barcoding progress for each working groups.
- Checklists: Taxonomic checklists for the fishes of the world, and of the various regional working groups.
- News & Updates: A comprehensive and current list of all the news surrounding FISH-BOL.
- Links: A list of all the relevant websites to the FISH-BOL initiative and related projects.
Contact Us
The two co-chairs for the FISH-BOL initiative are Paul Hebert and Bob Ward, and Bob Hanner is the campaign manager. All queries should be directed to one of these three.