CAAB – Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota

CAAB - Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota - is a continuously maintained and expanding 8-digit coding system for aquatic organisms in the Australian region maintained by CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research, Australia (CMAR).1

Description

Initially developed to cover fishes and selected other organisms of research or commercial interest, CAAB has more recently been expanded to provide more comprehensive coverage of a number of aquatic groups, as information is available. CAAB is used by a large and expanding number of governmental and industry groups for marine biology and fishery purposes and has replaced almost all other national and locally designed coding systems.

CAAB currently contains codes and taxonomic information for the following aquatic organisms in the Australian region:

• over 4,500 codes for fishes (CAAB category 37), representing virtually all known marine and freshwater species in Australian waters;
• codes for other marine vertebrates (CAAB categories 39 - reptiles, 40 - birds, 41 - mammals), representing all currently recognised marine species in Australia;
• over 14,000 codes for marine invertebrates (CAAB categories 10 to 36) in Australian waters, including sponges, stony corals, echinoderms, commercially important crustaceans and molluscs, tunicates, and other taxa;
• codes for Australian seagrasses and mangroves (CAAB category 63)
• codes for a representative selection of Australian seaweeds and microalgae (CAAB categories 52-55 and 70). 2

The CAAB database can be searched on-line and detailed reports can be generated on any taxon. Users can use this interface to match a code to a taxon name, see current or alternative scientific or common names for any taxon or code, and access a variety of on-line links as available in the database.3

Function

• Identification tools

Why use this tool?

• The CAAB codes are used to identify aquatic organisms.
• The CAAB database can be used to search by scientific name, common name, or taxon code, or produce a list of taxa in the database for any category.4

Who will use this tool?

• Data creation
• Experts - taxonomy
• Data capture
• Curators – specimens, identification
• Data providers
• Institutions
• Private collections
• Casual users
• Data users
• Expert
• Interest groups
• General public

How will the tool be used?

• Online
• User input required

Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

• Data source
• User’s machine

When could this tool be used?

• Before data is made available to ALA
• As a post process, after data is with the user

Availability

• CAAB: http://www.marine.csiro.au/caab/
• Cost: Free
• Copyright: CSIRO http://www.csiro.au/org/LegalNoticeAndDisclaimer.html

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