[2] Over time it has "evolved into a dynamic and versatile ecological tool" that is widely cited in scholarly publications.

There is access to tools such as trophic pyramids, identification keys, biogeographical modelling and fishery statistics and there are direct species level links to information in other databases such as LarvalBase, GenBank, the IUCN Red List and the Catalog of Fishes.

[6] As of February 2024[update], FishBase included descriptions of 35,600 species and subspecies, with 329,500 common names, 64,000 pictures, and references to 61,700 works in the scientific literature.

[7] The origins of FishBase go back to the 1970s, when the fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly found himself struggling to test a hypothesis on how the growing ability of fish was affected by the size of their gills.

[9] At the time, fisheries management used analytical models which required estimates for fish growth and mortality.

[10] It can be difficult for fishery scientists and managers to get the information they need on the species that concern them, because the relevant facts can be scattered across and buried in numerous journal articles, reports, newsletters and other sources.