The state of conservation biology is most often defined in terms of what is known about terrestrial ecosystems. Contrary to what can sometimes be read in that literature, the largest stumbling block on the way to successful biodiversity management and conservation in aquatic ecosystems is the lack of quantitative baseline data, and the associated ignorance about diversity under the water surface. In the absence of data, goals are often set as qualitatively defined “reference conditions”, an approach that can be subjective, that risks broad brush generalisation and suffers from the shifting baseline syndrome. To combat these issues we launched several large integrated biodiversity mapping efforts for fish in Switzerland including Projet Lac, which ran from 2010 to 2017, Progetto Fiumi, which ran from 2013-2017, and more recently the project Lanat-3 which attempts to resolve several taxonomic problems in fishes of Switzerland and attempts to give restoration recommendations on the basis of species distribution modeling.
