Marine Species Database for Eastern Africa (MASDEA)

MASDEA is a biogeographic/taxonomic database of marine species in the Western Indian Ocean/East Africa. The database was originally developed by Edward Vanden Berghe while working as project manager of the RECOSCIX-WIO project in Mombasa, and now maintained as a collaborative venture between the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute and VLIZ.

The database can be consulted in three ways (corresponding to the three items in the menu on the left):

• Browse: Navigate through the taxonomic tree by clicking on one of a list of taxon names
• Search: go directly to the taxon of interest by entering the (partial) name of the taxon in a search form
• List: create checklist for a geographical area (use "Browse" to see taxonomic lists)

The way information from the database is presented is described on the "About" screen, but should in most cases be self-explanatory. Some of the less evident points:

• There are some taxa for which we were not able to find the parent taxon. In these cases, we have used the taxon"s name, between square brackets, to fill the missing information.
• All records are qualified with three flags: two to indicate the degree of certainty and validity ("Valid/Wrong" and "Certain/Probable"), and one to indicate that the information was read from a distribution map, without specific mention of the country in the text of the publication.
• All distribution records are linked to the taxonomic name under which the observation was originally published, also if this name has become an invalid synonym. The synonym is linked with the name in current use, and distribution records are shown for both old and valid synonyms together.