23rd FishBase and SeaLifeBase Symposium

For over 30 years, FishBase (www.fishbase.org) has served as the world’s most comprehensive and trusted online database of fish species. With scientifically validated information on more than 36,000 species and nearly 400,000 unique users each month, FishBase ranks among the top 1% of all cited items published since the early 20th century.
Its sister platform, SeaLifeBase (www.sealifebase.org), launched in 2008, extends the same model to cover over 70,000 non-fish marine species. It attracts more than 300,000 monthly users, supporting researchers,educators, and conservationists worldwide.

Since 2001, both platforms have been maintained by the FishBase Consortium, a global collaboration of 15 leading museums, universities, and research institutes. Each year, the Consortium hosts its annual meeting alongside the FishBase & SeaLifeBase Symposium, creating a dynamic forum to engage with the local scientific community, highlight current research, and foster new collaborations.

In 2025, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), as a candidate member of the Consortium, is proud to host both the Consortium meeting and the symposium.

This free, hybrid event will feature invited presentations from scientists across the Consortium and beyond, covering a broad spectrum of research on fishes and marine life, from the local scale to global ecosystems, from morphological studies to cutting-edge genetics, from fundamental science to applied solutions, from data-poor regions to data-rich environments or from biodiversity databases to ecological models.

This symposium offers a unique opportunity to explore the diversity of fish and marine life studies, discover the impactful work carried out by RBINS, other Belgian institutions and the FishBase Consortium, and strengthen partnerships with the FishBase community.

We warmly invite researchers, students, and professionals in marine science and biodiversity to join us in advancing the knowledge and conservation of aquatic life.

The following international speakers have already confirmed:

• Cornelia Nauen (Mundus Maris, Brussels)
• Jessica Meeuwig (University of Western Australia, Australia)
• Fabrice Teletchea (Université de Lorraine, France)
• Daniel Pauly (University of British Columbia, Canada),
• Rainer Froese (Helmholtz-Centre for Ocean Research (GEOMAR), Germany)
• Imane Rahmouni (Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco)
• Athanassios Tsikliras (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)
• Lauren Sallan (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan)
• Alex Tilley (WorldFish, Malaysia)
• Margaret Fafa Akwetey (University of Cape Coast, Ghana).
• Ana Santacruz (University of Münster, Germany)

Venue: Big Auditorium, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium
Dates: 2-3 September 2025
Registration: via this link; deadline 15 August 2025
Abstract deadline (presentations are by invitation only): 25 July 2025
More information: see https://www.biodiversity.be/6163/ or contact us on FishBase-SeaLifeBase@naturalsciences.be

Organising committee:
Maarten Van Steenberge (RBINS), Geneviève Lacroix (RBINS), Tobias Musschoot (Belgian Biodiversity Platform), Maarten Vanhove (Hasselt University), Nikol Kmentová (RBINS, Hasselt University)