- Dr. Armi Torres (Post Doc) participated in the Philippine Aquatic Red List Committee’s (PARLC) Freshwater Bony Fishes Subcommittee planning-workshop and initial assessment of some freshwater bony fishes held at the Isabela State University, Echague Campus on 10-13 February 2020. She presented about the IUCN priority freshwater species that occur in the Philippines for global assessment. It was also a good opportunity to gather and secure support from the group in terms of providing Qq with data needed for a project collaboration with IUCN. After much deliberation, development of the IT infrastructure of PARLC’s national freshwater species information system remains to be the immediate and best opportunity for Qq to be able to work with IUCN.
- Dr. Mary Ann ‘Maan’ Bimbao (Executive Director) and Manuel ‘Jimboy’ Bactong (Software Engineer) went to the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology, College of Science in UP Diliman on 13 Feb 2020 to attend the Ships Ballast Water and Biofouling Treatment System Research Program, Graduate Students Information Session. This marked the onset of collaboration with the maritime industry players (our newest user group in the Philippines) who have recognized our expertise in aquatic information systems and database management which could aid them in the development of apps for quarantine inspection, port management motoring, biological invasion, etc. The MOA on ballast water management program between the Phil DOST and MARINA, DENR-BMB, and academe is now being finalized.
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By freepik – www.freepik.com
A meeting between the Irish Sea Centre and Q-quatics was held on 18 Feb 2020 at the Qq office where the two parties discussed a collaborative project on Marine biodiversity in the Isle of Man (ISC: Dr. Roger Pullin, Glenn Jamieson (byskype); Qq: Emily Capuli, Josephine Barile, Maan Bimbao). Qq presented 4 proposals: one was a checklist of the ISC species in FishBase and SeaLifeBase, free service; while the other three proposals entailed encoding and customization of their desired outputs. Currently, ISC was provided with species checklists. The Bruce et al.’s “Marine Fauna of the Isle of Man” will be revisited for species that may add to the list.
- An intermediate technical meeting of the FishBase Consortium’s Technical Working Group (FBC-TWG) was held on 24 February 2020 via Skype. It was participated by Andrea Hennyey, Michael Norén, Athanassios Tsikliras, Balthasar Zhang, Cristina Garilao, Gert Boden, James Hehre, Jing ‘Kim’ Hu, Nicolas Bailly, Patrice Pruvost, Tobias Musschoot, Josephine Barile and Manuel Bactong. Mike continues to fill-in Sven’s post as the NRM representative for FBC. There will be no replacement for Sven at least in the near future. NRM will fund the work on a new interface.
