There is a need to make information on important Australian fishes available to Australian scientists, managers, policy-makers, industry, business, students and the public so they can make timely and better informed decisions on matters concerning fish.

Increasingly, there is a need to quickly access information from outside Australia to assist in understanding Australian fishes eg. obtaining information on a fish stock Australia shares with another country, or a new fish resource that already has a history in another country. The most efficient way of doing this is via a centralised database containing information on fishes world-wide.

The work on FISHBASE forms part of a world-wide initiative facilitated by FAO and ICLARM to make technical information for fisheries resources more widely accessible to scientists and other users of the information. Australia makes considerable resources available to these organisations, and has a high profile and good reputation in international fisheries fora. The provision of Australian information into FISHBASE will profoundly enhance FISHBASE and is likely to engender greater use and success of the product; this will undoubtably be viewed favourably by international agencies.