April 3, 2006

Comprehensive tool for aquaculture launched

CAB International, a not-for- profit scientific publisher is launching Aquaculture Compendium, which its says is the world's first encyclopaedic, multimedia information tool covering all aspects of aquaculture production and health.

The database-driven product, which has taken information specialists and scientists 3 years to develop, is available on the Internet and will be released shortly on CD-ROM.

CABI information specialist Martin Parr, who led the project, said the organisation brought together comprehensive information, images, maps and authoritative articles from almost a hundred different organisations in the aquaculture industry.

The Aquaculture Compendium contains information on 300 commonly cultured aquatic species, such as finfish, crustaceans, molluscs, algae and live feeds. The datasheets cover all aspects of their biology and production - their taxonomy, life cycle, reproduction, nutrition, feeding and environmental requirements.

CABI is a international enterprise with an aim of collating knowledge in agriculture and related fields and ensuring that the knowledge in the life sciences is made widely available in usable forms.

Initially limited to entomology, it grew quickly to cover virtually every field in agriculture and associated disciplines, including biodiversity, biotechnology and the environment.

In the first decade of the 21st century, CABI's scope has broadened further to embrace the whole of the applied life sciences.

The aquaculture compendia can be found at http://www.cabi.org/compendia/ac/index.asp