CAAB - Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota - Fishmap

Background Information for Fish Distributions

Fishmap is a website with content curated by the Australian National Fish Collections (ANFC) gathering information from the whole fisheries community including Federal and State Government, Industry and Amateur Fishers and Naturalists.

The website was developed by Information & Data Centre, CSIRO National Collections & Marine Infrastructure (NCMI) to manage and deciminate this information.

Modelling Fish Distributions

CSIRO National Collections & Marine Infrastructure (NCMI) has used a technique for 2-dimensional analysis (distance around Australia's coast plus minimum-maximum depth range), translatable to geographic maps via a gridded bathymetry.

Figure 1 String route map based on the 500m isobath

These have been refined since the initial work which led to the Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia Report (IMCRA, 1996), through additional studies such as the CSIRO South-East Marine Region (SEMR) study, 2001, the Validation of National Demersal Fish Datasets for the Regionalisation of the Australian Continental Slope and Outer Shelf (Last et al., 2005), and for the CERF Marine Biodiversity Hub report (Lyne et al., 2009). For an overview of methodology see Last et al. (2005).

Distributional ranges represent the currently known limits of occurrence for many species in terms of distance and depth around the Australian coastline, and are based on the best validated evidence and expert knowledge.

2010 - 2020

Between 2010-2012 mapping data was compiled by a team from CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research (CMAR) funded jointly by the CSIRO Wealth from Oceans (WfO) Flagship and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). The team comprised:

  • Daniel Gledhill, Peter Last and William White
  • Tony Rees (Data Management and Data Publishing support)
  • John Pogonoski, Alastair Graham, Carlie Devine and Louise Conboy (Australian National Fish Collection)

However, there has been significant contributions from participants in earlier parts of this work, including:

  • Alan Williams, Alison Phillips, Gordon Yearsley, Roger Scott, Spikey Riddoch, Suzanne Long and Vincent Lyne (CSIRO)
  • Martin Gomon and Di Bray (Museum Victoria)
  • Ken Graham (formerly NSW Fisheries)
  • Barry Hutchins (Western Australian Museum)
  • Jeff Johnson (Queensland Museum)
  • John Paxton, Mark McGrouther and Doug Hoese (Australian Museum)
  • Barry Russell and Helen Larson (NT Museum)
  • Tomio Iwamoto (California Academy of Sciences)
  • Kunio Amaoka (Hokkaido University)
  • Lee Belbin (formerly Australian Antarctic Division)
  • and Patricia Kailola and Rudie Kuiter (consultants)
Figure 2 ALA Fishmap which made use of the distribution data accessible - 2013-2020
2021 - present

The most recent updates commenced in 2020 with work undertaken by the NCMI Information & Data Centre (IDC) to intergrate Fishmap tools implemented for ALA into IDC systems and bring the tools for publishing and disemination inline with other IDC tools.

This work, led by Francis Chui (Software Development and Spatial systems) and John Pogonoski (Database Curation) included updates with more recent bathymetric data sourced from the GEBCO_2020 Grid and Marine Boundaries and EEZ, v11. Sampling resolution for the grid was increased from tenth of a degree to a twentieth degree. More recently June 2026 the bathymetric data was updated to sample from the GEBCO_2026 Grid

Figure 3 extension regions added in 2021

During this period an extension for the model was made to encompass the following external regions:

Northern Regions
  • Christmas Island
  • Cocos/Keeling Island
  • Rowley Shoals
  • Scott/Seringapatam Reefs
  • Ashmore & Cartier Islands
Eastern Regions
  • Middleton & Elizabeth Reefs
  • Lord Howe Rise
  • Norfolk Island Ridge
Southern Regions
  • Heard & McDonald Islands
  • Australian Antarctic Territory
  • Macquarie Island
Data Licensing
Distribution Maps

The modelled distribution maps on CAAB Fishmap curated by the ANFC are provided under a CC BY 4.0 licence (Attribution 4.0. International).

You are free to:
  1. Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
  2. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
  3. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
  1. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  2. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:

You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.

No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Fish Images
CAAB Images, unless otherwise stated, are provided under a CC BY-NC-SA licence.
Citation

CAAB Fishmap, 2021. Modelled fish distribution maps for Australian waters. CSIRO National Collections & Marine Infrastructure, Australian National Fish Collections (https://ror.org/05hdbs804). Hobart TAS, AU. Available online at https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/caab/fishmap.cfm

References
  1. IMCRA (Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia Technical Group), 1996. Interim Marine Bioregionalisation for Australia: towards a national system of marine protected areas. CSIRO, Hobart.
  2. CSIRO, 2001. Rapid Assembly of Ecological Fish Data (Community Composition and Distribution) for the South-east Marine Region. CSIRO Marine Research, Hobart, 52 pp.
  3. Last, P., Lyne, V., Yearsley, G., Gledhill, D., Gomon, M., Rees, T. & White, W., 2005. Validation of national demersal fish datasets for the regionalisation of the Australian continental slope and outer shelf (>40 m depth). Report to National Oceans Office, 98 pp.
  4. Lyne, V.D., White, W.T., Gledhill, D.C., Last, P.R., Rees, A.J. & Porter-Smith, R. 2009. Analysis of Australian continental shelf provinces and biomes based on fish data. Hobart, Tas. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research; 2009; 44 pp.
  5. GEBCO Bathymetric Compilation Group 2020(2020). The GEBCO_2020 Grid - a continuous terrain model of the global oceans and land. British Oceanographic Data Centre, National Oceanography Centre, NERC, UK. doi:10.5285/a29c5465-b138-234d-e053-6c86abc040b9
  6. Flanders Marine Institute (2019). Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase: Maritime Boundaries and Exclusive Economic Zones (200NM), version 11. Available online at https://www.marineregions.org/. https://doi.org/10.14284/386
  7. GEBCO Bathymetric Compilation Group 2026(2026). The GEBCO_2026 Grid - a continuous terrain model for oceans and land at 15 arc-second intervals. NERC EDS British Oceanographic Data Centre NOC. doi:10.5285/4f68d5c7-45eb-f999-e063-7086abc036fa