ABOUT THE INDIAN OCEAN CATALOGUE
The Indian Ocean Catalogue
was jointly conceived by Philip Basson, who was researching
algae in the Persian Gulf, and G.F. Papenfuss, formerly of the Department
of Botany, University of California.
The original goal--to produce for the Persian Gulf region a reference
like the catalogue that Papenfuss had produced for the Red Sea--was
greatly expanded as a result of Papenfuss's interest in the algae of
the east coast of Africa.
See Scope.
The project was begun in 1977 and has proceeded intermittently.
The initial, literature-searching phase,
which was partly funded by NSF, was undertaken mainly by
Basson. Papenfuss, who was to have assembled the algal records in
a modern taxonomic framework, died not long after the project began and
his role was taken over by Paul Silva, who became responsible for
taxonomy and nomenclature. Richard Moe joined the project
in 1987, entering the records into a computer,
updating the entries as necessary, verifying data,
and attempting to ensure consistency throughout the whole.