Scientists here are gathering data on the schools of fish that live in the waters of Singapore, and the trove of information on these creatures will be curated for an online archive. This “fish library” of more than 500 fish species residing in local waters will be made accessible to the public as early as mid-2021. It is the first such database here. The specimens were collected by researchers in an expedition that lasted 12 days in Aug, as part of the larger CodeFish-SG project which seeks to build a comprehensive DNA database of fishes in Singapore. Both the expedition and the project were funded by the Marine Science Research and Development Programme of the NRF. By keeping a DNA library of these fish species, scientists can find out the types of fish that live in a particular body of water, simply by matching the DNA material present in the water sample to those already present in the database. Such DNA material includes scales and mucus shed by fishes.... Continue Reading