Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abudance of life in the global ocean. The world's first comprehensive Census of Marine Life - past, present, and future - will be released in 2010.

The Census of Marine Life is creating the first ever catalog of marine life in the global ocean which will provide a baseline of the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life against which future changes can be measured.  Census findings are significantly contributing to our understanding of what lives below the surface.  Researchers are taking advantage of recent advancements in technology to explore previously unreachable and unexplored areas in the global ocean.

At present, there is a critical need for better information to fashion the management that will sustain fisheries, conserve diversity, reverse losses of habitat, reduce impacts of pollution, and respond to global climate change. The Census is providing a scientific foundation upon which future ocean policy can be developed and marine research progressed. A Census database called the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) now holds 16 million records. Using multiple data sets, many focusing on under-studied waters of the global ocean, OBIS, the World Register of Marine Species, and the Encyclopedia of Life, are collectively becoming a complete marine biodiversity database of the world—a vital resource to policymakers and marine scientists.

During the late 1990’s, several leading marine scientists shared their concerns with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that humanity’s understanding of what lived in the oceans lagged far behind our desire and need to know more. The Sloan Foundation was the first entity to provide these diverse scientists with support to come together and develop a strategy that addressed their concerns: conducting a worldwide census to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life—past, present, and future. The 10-year Census of Marine Life officially began in 2000. To learn more

The Census of Marine Life is coordinated by a Secretariat based at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington, D.C., and governed by an international Scientific Steering Committee. Twelve National and Regional Implementation Committees work under the guidance of the international Scientific Steering Committee and serve to strengthen the global reach of the Census in support of marine biodiversity research.

Seventeen projects conduct the research and analysis on six ocean realms that will be reported in the first Census of Marine Life in October 2010. The Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research Technology Panel monitors new technologies for observing marine life and recommends when cutting-edge marine technologies are mature enough to be used routinely in Census field projects.

A Synthesis Group is working to organize, integrate, and synthesize the vast information gathered by the Census for 2010. An Education and Outreach Team based at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography's Office of Marine Programs coordinates Census-wide communications, media relations, education, and outreach activities so the scientific results are shared with the world. A Mapping and Visualization Team based at Duke University's Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab is developing and sharing methods to display the results of the ten-year Census of Marine Life.

Support for the Census of Marine Life comes from government agencies concerned with science, environment, and fisheries and from numerous private foundations and corporations.

Biodiversity is one potential measure of the health of an ecosystem. A diverse biological community allows for diverse interactions among the various species— greater competition, predation, and productivity than a non-diverse community. If one species population declines, a diverse system has a greater chance of adjusting to this loss or decline than one that is non-diverse, where the consequences are greater.

Because so little of the global ocean has been explored (less than 5 percent!), Census researchers discover something new each time they go into the field. In addition to new species, Census researchers find life in unexpected places and diversity and distribution of animals far beyond their expectations. Some troubling trends are also surfacing. Some examples include a decline in populations of top predators like tuna and shark and threatened habitats such as coral reefs and seamounts.

As of fall 2008, the Census of Marine Life has discovered more than 5,300 new, undescribed marine animals since 2003. Of these, 111 have gone through the rigorous scientific review process required for designation as a new species—a process that can often take years. Collectively, the Census is discovering new species at a much faster rate than the capacity to describe them.

While the discovery of a new species is always exciting, the greater contribution to our understanding of marine life is what Census scientists are learning about the diversity and distribution of marine life in the global oceans.

Although the current number of known species is estimated at 230,000, scientists believe that there as many as three times this number are yet to be discovered and named. The total number of marine species in the global ocean could surpass one million or more.

The Census is not tracking extinction rates per se, but rather trying to gauge current population levels of marine species and how these levels have changed over time and may change in the future.

Recent technological advances are making it possible for scientists to explore previously inaccessible places, including the deepest, darkest, and hottest areas of the global ocean. Using such advanced technology, Census scientists are making many scientific “firsts,” such as finding the hottest hydrothermal vent and the deepest active hot vent to date, mapping the largest cold seep site in the world, recording the longest electronically-recorded migration, and investigating marine life living in some of the coldest conditions on the planet.

Census scientists use marine animals as ocean observers so they experience their watery world much as the animals do. By tagging and tracking marine animals, scientists gain an insider’s view to migration routes, breeding and eating habits, and size and behavior of populations—insights that haven’t been possible before.

Census scientists make exciting discoveries every time they explore a new area, and with each new discovery more questions are raised.

Recent highlights include:

Distribution: Scientists discover both a “White Shark Café” and a “sturgeon playground” in the Pacific, as others explore life in oceanic canyons, around Earth’s deepest hot vents, and in the world’s coldest, saltiest seawater;

Diversity: Deep-sea explorers discover new forms of life, including behemoth bacteria, colossal sea stars, astonishing Antarctic amphipods, and a mammoth mollusk, and find familiar species in many new places. Experts also estimate that, beyond the 16,000 marine fish species already known to science, another 4,000 await discovery, many of them in the tropics.

Abundance: Researchers find a sea floor carpet of bugs and a city of brittle stars, and document bluefin tuna abundance in the early 1900s by scouring fishery reports, fishing magazines and other records.

Any organization, consortium, project or individual may contribute to the Census database OBIS. Contributions typically take the form of publishing data through OBIS, or providing software tools. To add data to OBIS, please contact data [at] iobis [dot] org.

The Census is an unprecedented international collaboration that will informally continue after the first Census of Marine Life is reported in 2010. Efforts are currently underway to structure another such collaborative initiative for 2010 and beyond. Permanent legacies of the first Census of Marine Life are a publicly accessible database, OBIS, the Encyclopedia of Life, and the Barcode of Life that ensure that the means for future marine life research efforts.

The insights gained by the first Census of Marine Life will serve as a framework for future marine research for decades to come.