I am curious how others have used Fishbase data, and what your professional opinion is on valid uses for the data. For example, do you think it's acceptable to fill holes in data sets, do you think it is acceptable to use Fishbase data as the basis for a study, etc.
I have used Fishbase data to fill holes in datasets that I can't find in the primary literature, but I've always tried not to rely on it heavily as the references for the Fishbase data often do not seem reliable.
Hi Katelyn - I think I only used it once as an 'easy' source for numerous small fish maximum size, water column position, and migratory classification (amphidromous, nonmigratory, etc.) that I needed for a paper. I did note that I was basing it on 'references in Froese and Pauly 2010'. I'd be less inclined to try and use it for morphometrics, etc., when stats might be based on a single photo that's been uploaded, for example.
I used it to fill initial holes in covariate data for this paper: "Evaluating establishment success of non-native fishes introduced to inland aquatic habitats of tropical Pacific islands". However, my coauthors are fish experts and they subsequently tried to minimize the use of FiseBase in our data set by making better use of the primary literature and personal knowledge than I had. I am unsure how much FishBase data made it into the final data set. However, I think the final paper included the following line: "These variables were scored based on published literature, technical data summarized in FishBase (Froese & Pauly 2021), closely related or similar species in cases where data were unavailable, and personal knowledge of the authors."
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