An authoritative register of all marine species is urgently required to facilitate biological data exchange and management, integration of biological with other ocean data, and to allow taxonomists to focus on describing new species instead of overlooking recently described species and correcting past nomenclatural confusion (Costello et al., 2006). Its production has added benefits in fostering collaboration between experts at a global scale. Easy access to encourages submissions of overlooked species to the list. In turn, this stimulates biogeographic and evolutionary research.
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy
