OceanOmics

The problem

Thousands of marine species are considered endangered and extinction rates have accelerated in the past century.

Our role & goal

Preserve and protect marine biodiversity.

Minderoo Foundation’s OceanOmics program is advancing marine genomics and computational approaches to improve our knowledge through monitoring programs that help us more effectively combat threats to ocean health.

The ocean is at risk from a range of existential threats, including unsustainable fishing practices, rising seawater temperatures, ocean acidification, pollution and more.

Cataloguing marine biodiversity and improving our understanding of species’ distribution and evolution is fundamental to conservation.

Satellite image of the Great Barrier Reef. Credit: Satellite Earth Art via Getty Images.

Deep dive

With over 80 per cent of Earth’s oceans remaining unexplored, we are yet to uncover everything there is to know about our sea life and the big blue.

eDNA technology provides a fast, cost-effective way to detect species without directly observing them, massively increasing our ability to monitor marine wildlife without harming it.

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Our approach

We believe eDNA-based marine genomics and AI can form the technological basis for innovations that will revolutionise how we measure, understand, and ultimately, protect life in the ocean.

Explore eDNA

Genome Availability

Dataset

The raw DNA sequencing reads of our expeditions are continuously uploaded to the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). When using this data, please acknowledge Minderoo Foundation by including this text in your Acknowledgements section:

We would like to thank Minderoo Foundation for sequencing reads deposited in [use sequence IDs or DOIs here].

Rowley Shoals Expedition – BioProject PRJNA930913

How we are helping

Marine expeditions

Our goal is to use eDNA approaches to more accurately monitor life in the global ocean. With an initial focus on Australia’s ocean ecosystems, the Pangaea Ocean Explorer has already embarked on eight voyages, collecting samples and doing onboard genomic analyses for population-scale monitoring of the health of Australia’s ocean wildlife.

Samples of eDNA were collected and analysed from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef, as well as from the unique marine ecosystems of the Abrolhos Islands, the deep-sea environment of Perth Canyon, and the nearshore waters off the south-west coast of Western Australia.

Supporting conservation and protection

The OceanOmics program supports the United Nations goal of conserving 30 per cent of the world’s ocean by 2030.

We are contributing to this outcome by fostering new methods for monitoring and combating threats to marine wildlife and ecosystems; measuring the health status of current marine protected areas; and helping governments and management agencies to identify new biodiversity hotspots and ecosystems in need of protection.

Creating a DNA library for thousands of marine species

To characterise marine biodiversity based on eDNA we require a library of reference genomes. That way, we can look up the snippets of DNA found in seawater and identify all the species present in our samples, similar to a dictionary.

Unfortunately, to date only one per cent of the 20,000 known species of marine fish have had their genome sequenced. In collaboration with our global partners, one of OceanOmics’ goals is to empower conservation science by generating and publicly releasing the reference genomic resources for thousands of marine species.

Our partners

Scientific advisory panel

To support and steer this important work, Minderoo Foundation collaborates with leading experts in an array of marine genomics, AI and conservation fields from the USA, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia through the OceanOmics Scientific Advisory Panel.

Professor Barbara Block, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, United States
Professor Michael Bunce, Institute of Environment Science and Research (ESR), New Zealand Crown Research Institute, New Zealand
Professor Tom Gilbert, Centre for Evolutionary Hologenomics, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Associate Professor Siavash Mirarab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, United States
Dr Ramunas Stepanauskas, Single Cell Genomics Center, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, United States