Rainer Froese
Rainer Froese, AquaMaps project coordinator, discusses a species modelled distribution at a project workshop in Kiel 2005
Born (1950-08-25) 25 August 1950 (age 74)
Wismar, East Germany
(now Germany)
Alma materUniversity of Hamburg (PhD)
University of Kiel (MSc)
Known forDeveloping and coordinating FishBase
AwardsPew Fellow in Marine Conservation
Scientific career
FieldsMarine ecology
InstitutionsLeibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR)[1]

Rainer Froese (born 25 August 1950 in Wismar, East Germany[2]) is a senior scientist at the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research (GEOMAR) in Kiel, formerly the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR), and a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation.[3] He obtained an MSc in Biology in 1985 at the University of Kiel and a PhD in Biology in 1990 from the University of Hamburg. Early in his career, he worked at the Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM in Kiel) on computer-aided identification systems and the life strategies of fish larvae. His current research interests include fish information systems, marine biodiversity, marine biogeography, and the population dynamics of fisheries and large marine ecosystems.[3]

Froese is best known for his work developing and maintaining FishBase, a large and widely accessed online information system on fish.[3] From 1990 until 2000, Froese lead the development of FishBase at ICLARM in Manila. Since 2000, he has coordinated the large international consortium that now oversees FishBase.[4] Its searchable database contains 34,000 fish species and the site receives over 30 million views each month.[5] He is also the coordinator of AquaMaps, which produces computer-generated global distribution maps for marine species,[6] and science adviser to SeaLifeBase, which is an extension of FishBase to aquatic organisms other than fish.[7][8]

Froese has authored or co-authored over 100 scientific publications.[9] In 1998, along with Daniel Pauly and others, Froese authored an influential paper called Fishing down marine food webs.[10] The paper examined the consequences of preferentially targeting large predator fish over smaller forage fish. As a result, the fishing industry has been "fishing down the food web", and the mean trophic level in the oceans has progressively decreased. More recently, in a 2011 letter to Nature, he stated that the European Common Fisheries Policy "consistently gets to overrule scientific advice and drive fish stocks to the brink of collapse. Without massive subsidies, European fisheries would be bankrupt: the cost of hunting the few remaining fish would exceed the income from selling the catch."[11]

Some publications

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR), Kiel Archived 27 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Utecht, Christine (10 March 2006). "Curriculum of Research" (PDF). The Future Ocean. Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Marine Fellow: Rainer Froese Pew Environment Group.
  4. ^ Dr. Rainer Froese Oceania. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  5. ^ FishBase – main web page.
  6. ^ AquaMaps – home web page
  7. ^ Sealifebase: Partners Archived 3 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine Updated 30 September 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  8. ^ Sealifebase: Home Archived 14 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine Updated 30 September 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  9. ^ Board of Trustees Archived 30 July 2012 at archive.today, FishBase Information and Research Group. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  10. ^ Pauly D, Christensen V, Dalsgaard J, Froese R and Torres F (1998) "Fishing down marine food webs" Science, 279: 860–863.
  11. ^ Froese R (2011) "Fishery reform slips through the net" Nature, Letter, 475: 7. doi:10.1038/475007a Expanded version

References