Taxonomy and systematics of most animal species have been described in sufficient detail to permit the classification of practically any organism and, in particular, may be of use in the identification of the species and subspecies for the fish trade and ecological concerns regarding fisheries. However, before FishTrace started there was a lack of fast reference tools that hindered the efficient identification and differentiation of teleosts required in fisheries management, biological and ecological research, and human consumption. This problem could affect several of the socio-economic activities related to Fisheries Policies and therefore, the constitution of a database for identification of fish species of commercial, ecological and zoological interest for the European countries was clearly necessary.