A regional information system on fishes from the Western Ghats, India: Its design, implementation and utility

Present study discusses design and implementation of an information system for fish biodiversity of Western Ghats region. The system was developed by collating data from published reliable sources and applying Visual Basic language, MSACESS database and ADOBE image technologies for the Windows platform. The system through different search options provides ability to browse taxonomic, distribution, conservation status, morphology, environment and other fishery information of fish species of interest with good quality images. It incorporates information on 373 fish species belonging to 45 families and 141 genus. Of the 373 fish species,141 are endemic to this region and 8 are exotic. This serves as fish checklist resource of this region.