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Biological Information System for Marine LifeBiological Information System for Marine Life

About BISMaL

The aim of BISMaL

The Biological Information System for Marine Life, in short BISMaL, is a web-based data system for biodiversity information, particularly in biogeographic data of marine organisms. BISMaL was constructed by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and is operated in the Global Oceanographic Data Center (GODAC) of JAMSTEC. BISMaL mainly collects information of marine organisms around Japan. And its aim is to open information of marine organisms to the public and to contribute to a better understanding of marine biodiversity.

Why we constructed BISMaL

Japan is a country surrounded by a wide variety of marine environments, and our life largely depends on the blessing of marine resources. However, local and global changes in natural environments have been suggested to affect marine biota and to suppress the marine biological resources. In such circumstance, accumulating knowledge on marine species around Japan was needed for understanding the current status of marine biodiversity. JAMSTEC decided to collect and integrate knowledge on the marine species around Japan and to provide it to contribute to further progress of researches in related fields. To distribute the collected and integrated information of marine life around Japan, an online data system, which is BISMaL, was constructed by JAMSTEC and was launched in May 2009. Though BISMaL is in use, function enhancements and feature developments are still in progress for its further advancement.

Contents

BISMaL is an integrated data system including photographs, movies, distribution records, references and brief descriptions of morphology/ecology of each species or its higher taxon. Although BISMaL is a data system of JAMSTEC, it also works as the system of the Japan Ocean Biodiversity Information System Center (J-OBIS), the Japan node of the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS). Data and information collected and integrated by J-OBIS are opened to the public and provided to OBIS through BISMaL. BISMaL is contributing to global data sharing and information exchange as well as working as a data system of JAMSTEC

Contact information

BISMaL is operated and maintained by the BISMaL operating team in GODAC, JAMSTEC. If you have any inquiries about our BISMaL system, or anything about data, please feel free to contact us by the following e-mail address.

BISMaL operating team : bismal-admin@jamstec.go.jp

About the Japan Ocean Biodiversity Information System Center (J-OBIS), please contact the following address.

J-OBIS office : j-obis_j@jamstec.go.jp