Tennessee Aquarium

The Tennessee Aquarium will partner with Tennessee Technological University to develop the Freshwater Information Network, an interactive portal that combines museum records, recent survey data, and photo archives to provide biologists and resource managers with a platform for connecting and sharing the best scientific information on aquatic animals. While museums and natural history collections are the largest sources of information about biodiversity, they are not easily accessible to non-specialists working in the field. The network objectives are to enhance the conservation value of museum data by creating a combined locality database that incorporates contemporary survey data from imperiled species, and to forge new links between biologists, resource managers, conservation practitioners, and their biodiversity data for rapid conservation decision-making. Groups expected to access the portal are scientific researchers and graduate students at museums and universities, resource managers, conservation practitioners, watershed groups, and other conservation NGOs.