Database versions are supported in the Fishbase API only at this time. We may support multiple versions of Sealifebase in the future.
The Fishbase API supports multiple different versions of the underlying database.
You can request a different database version with a HTTP header like Accept: application/vnd.ropensci.v3+json
Where v3 represents "version 3" and so on. These versions correspond to specific dates associated with different database versions. The current versions for Fishbase are:
- 201505
- 201604
- 201703
- 201712
The date format YYYYMM is four digits for year, then two digits for month, with no spaces/characters between them.
By default, we return the latest date version.
See the /versions route for description of the different versions and their names.
In the R client rfishbase the database version will be controlled by a parameter or option/env var, so users won't have to pass headers themselves.