On the 22nd of February 2023, a delightful presence graced the halls of the Q-quatics office in the Philippines as Dr. Essam Yassin Mohammed, Director General of WorldFish and Senior Director of Aquatic Food Systems at CGIAR, visited the office of the Q-quatics Executive Director.
and Dr. Mary Ann Bimbao at the Q-quatics office in the Philippines.
WorldFish is one of the founding members of the FishBase Consortium since its inception in 2000, and has forged a robust partnership with Q-quatics, collaborating closely on numerous fish-related initiatives throughout the years.
Dr. Mohammed was enthusiastically welcomed by Dr. Mary Ann Bimbao, Executive Director of Q-quatics, along with Dr. Maria Lourdes “Deng”‘” Palomares, Q-quatics Science Director, and Dr. Nicolas Bailly, Q-quatics Taxonomy Director. Both Dr. Palomares and Dr. Bailly are based at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, and are currently onsite for their annual official visit to Q-quatics. A lively exchange on how WorldFish and Q-quatics can further strengthen its research collaboration transpired during the brief encounter, paving the way for promising future endeavors.
Way back in September 2022, the four met for the first time at the WorldFish headquarters in Penang, Malaysia when WorldFish hosted the 20th Annual FishBase Symposium and FishBase Consortium Annual Meeting. In his Welcome speech, Dr. Mohammed eloquently underscored the impact of FishBase, reflecting on his personal experience with the platform. He recounted a pivotal moment in 1998 when FishBase ‘came to the rescue’ and played a crucial role in aiding the development of Eritrea’s first fisheries science and development policy.
“Everyone of us here in the room who made contributions to the development, enrichment and growth of FishBase, I think should be very proud because sometimes we doubt ourselves whether our work is having an impact or not. This is a true personal story from a young nation that was emerging in the 1990s and how FishBase came to hand in order to enable us to better manage our fishery at that time.”
Dr. Mohammed is currently in Los Baños, participating in the ‘Tripartite Research Collaboration Meeting’ convened by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The said event brings together management and research leaders from IRRI, WorldFish, and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) for collaborative discussions.
