UNESCO IOC Register of Marine Organisms

The UNESCO IOC Register of Marine Organisms is an easily searchable
database which is a component of the ETI World Biodiversity
Database. The Register of Marine Organisms is an already large and
gradually growing dataset that is being built up, and maintained at
the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, the Netherlands. As
soon as datasets for particular groups are more or less complete and
reliable or at least useful, they are being transferred to the
database at ETI in Amsterdam. The same holds for updates in the
future. The register is basically only a list of species names but it
is tried to add at least some additional information, including author
names, vernacular names, information on geographical and bathymetrical
distribution and NODC numerical codes. Synonyms are added but only if
they are still in use or were used in recent times.

At the present time, many efforts are being undertaken to prepare
partial biodiversity inventories at different levels - global,
regional and national. The Register is, therefore, intended to act as
a tool for the collection of information necessary to the development
of strategies at the decision-making level for the conservation and
sustainable use of biological diversity.

Information was taken from the web site -
The Register will draw on a checklist of marine organisms with a bibliography
of key works. The initial phase of the project extends to the family level
and it has largely been completed. The Register can, thus, provide a
framework for more detailed work, such as compiling inventories of
species. Furthermore, as a comprehensive list of marine organism
families, the Register will act as an 'entering key' to more specific
lists/databases (e.g. the ETI products). The second phase, already
started, is aimed at expanding the Register down to the species
level. The further development of the project must, however, be
considered as an on-going exercise, leading to a product which also
includes tools as guidance for identification. The Register is also
aimed at building up a basis for an internationally agreed taxonomic
terminology of marine organisms. In fact, while the project of a
comprehensive register of marine organisms does not have the
pretention of making taxonomists agree once and for all, the Register
could hopefully act as a co-ordinating mechanism to help stabilize
nomenclature. This goal is being achieved through the involvement of
many specialists and, to this end, some 400 floppy disks with a draft
register of families were distributed worldwide and numerous
taxonomists were invited to contribute. Meanwhile many reviewed the
first draft and provided their inputs to the completion of lists of
species of several selected groups. Another important goal of such a
project is to come up with a reliable assessment of the number of
marine species. Assessing the effective number of marine species is
probably an impossible task. However, it is time to show what the
international scientific community does know in this field. The
Register, which will also be released on computer CD-ROM, is also
aimed at promoting computer assisted taxonomy. This appears very
important, especially in those countries where good libraries are
scarce or absent. Furthermore, a computer database can always be
easily updated. The US National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC)
Taxonomic Code - which is a hierarchical system of numerical codes
used to represent the scientific name of organisms - has been
introduced into the Register. This need for a coding system arises
because biological data are nowadays increasingly processed by
computer, and several taxonomic coding systems have been developed
accordingly. The advantage is that, once a coding system has been
introduced, the records can be easily manipulated. Similarly, FAO
provided their standardized lists of common names in use for fisheries
purposes for inclusion in the Register. The Register is also intended
to help circulate biological data within the International
Oceanographic Data Information and Exchange System (IODE), thus
becoming accessible to IODE system users as well.