2000•2001•2002•2003•2004•2005•2006•2007•2008•2009•2010
FIRST CENSUS
OF MARINE LIFE 2010
HIGHLIGHTS OF A DECADEOF DISCOVERY

www.coml.org

We thank the thousands of scientists and hundreds of sponsors
who made possible the First Census of Marine Life. We hope it will
stimulate science, engage the public, and inform managementfor decades to come.
Ian Poiner, Chair
International Scientific Steering Committee
Census of Marine LifeA school of sardines off Port St. Johns, South Africa, 2005.
Image: Julien Sarano, Galatée Films

FIRST CENSUS
OF MARINE LIFE 2010
HIGHLIGHTS OF A DECADEOF DISCOVERYCONTENTS
Readers may approach this volume, like marine life, atdifferent levels. A sequence of images and blue captions
tell the story, as does the black text, and the combination.

Summary
Introduction
Diversity
Distribution
Abundance
Legacies
How the Census Worked
The Census Teams
Photo Credits & Image Sources

3
6
10
19
27
32
35
43
61

Editors: Jesse H. Ausubel,
Darlene Trew Crist, and Paul E.Waggoner
Designer: Darrell McIntire
Contributors: 2,700 marine scientists
from around the globe
ISBN: 978 -1- 4507- 3102 -7
A publication of the Census of Marine Lifewww.coml.org
coml@oceanleadership.org+1 202 232 3900
Printed in the United States of America© 2010 Census of Marine LifeAll Rights Reserved

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

Census of Marine Life International Secretariat
Consortium for Ocean Leadership
Suite 420
1201 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005 USA

1

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

Arctic Ocean

Atlantic
Ocean

Pacific
Ocean
Indian
Ocean

Southern Ocean• Continental shelf• Continental margin
Abyssal plain

Seamounts

Ridge

RESANSMAN LAVI MAREN

1. The oceans encompass almost 10 times as much deep sea (averaging 4,000 meters) as shallow shelf (up to 200 meters). Shelves may be
as narrow as 5 kilometers (e.g., off California or Chile) or as wide as hundreds of kilometers (e.g., off China or Argentina). Until recently, mosthuman activities, and their impacts, have concentrated on the shallow shelves highlighted in pink around land here. The largest oceans are thePacific and the Southern, which whirls like a carousel around Antarctica. Earth’s Southern Hemisphere is 80 percent water, mostly very deep.
Undersea mountain ranges or ridges divide ocean basins, and about 100,000 seamounts higher than 1,000 meters rise from the seafloor.
Image: Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization Team2

2. Between the shallow pink shelves that extend to a depth of about 200 meters around continents and the blue abyssal plains beneaththe deep sea that average about 4,000 meters deep, the gray continental margins slope downward. Their gradient, exaggerated in thisrendering, brings great and little-explored biodiversity. The margins also offer access to vast resources of petroleum and natural gas. In theview here, the world’s longest mountain range, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, traverses the ocean from north to south.
Image: Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization TeamSUMMARY

Distribution

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Marine habitats

3. In “pelagic” or open ocean ecosystems, differences in light,
temperature, salinity, and nutrients determine productivity. Productivity, in turn, limits what kinds of creatures can live there. The
prefixes to pelagic in the left of the figure refer to depth zones.
Image: Lianne Dunn

5. The Census studied many different coastal habitats fromthe tropics near the equator up to temperate environments at
midlatitudes. Each habitat has unique characteristics and its own
suite of species. Image: Lianne Dunn

4. An array of specialized habitats exists on the deep-sea floor,
thousands of meters below the surface. The Census standardized
datasets to enable comparisons of kinds of life among these specialized habitats. Image: Lianne Dunn

6. Polar ecosystems exhibit special
characteristics. Near the poles, icereaching out from coasts defines
seasons and thus defines changes in food and habitat. Landsurrounds the waters of the Arctic Ocean, whereas the water of
the Southern Ocean surrounds Antarctic land.
Image: Lianne Dunn

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE
5

A DECADE OF DISCOVERYSAMUDRI JEEVAN KA GANANINTRODUCTION

6

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7. Image: Gary Cranitch

INTRODUCTION

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8. The idea of learning everything that lives in the sea plus their addresses and numbers brings smiles to people’s faces. Cartoonist Jim Toomey
imagined how sea animals might themselves conduct a Census of Marine Life. Fortunately, the opportunity for discovery and the scale of the
Census also attracted thousands of scientists from more than 80 nations,
who rallied around learning the diversity, distribution, and abundanceof marine life in the past, present, and future. Image: Jim Toomey

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CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE
7

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

9. Census investigators explored on and beneath polar ice. Their aircraft remotely sensed animals through properties of scattered light. Marine
animals themselves carried tags that stored records of their travels and dives and communicated with satellites. Fish carried tags that revealed
their migration past acoustic listening lines. Sounds that echoed back to ships portrayed schools of fish assembling, swimming, and commuting up

8

INTRODUCTIONCENSUS OF MARINE LIFEand down. Standardized frames and structures dropped near shores and on reefs provided information for comparing diversity and abundance.
Manned and unmanned undersea vehicles plus divers photographed sea floors and cliffs. Deep submersibles sniffed and videotaped smoking
seafloor vents. And nets and dredges still caught specimens, shallow and deep, for closest study. Image: E. Paul Oberlander

9A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

DIVERSITY

10. A researcher with the Coral Reefs project dives for specimens in
the Celebes
SeaBodil??, 200?.
10. Image:
Bluhm

10

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Number of new marine fish species
and subspecies by year
1600
Proposed
new species
Valid species
Authors

1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1755

1805

1855

1905

1955

2005

Year

11. People often feel that everything must already be known, as discoveries grow and libraries accumulate. The continuing discoveryof new fish species (and subspecies) demonstrates that the Age of
Discovery is not over. The smaller number of species validated thanproposed as new species illustrates the thorough evaluation needed
before a species is declared truly new. The rising number of authorsof species descriptions reflects the growing interest in marine biodiversity. Source: William N. Eschmeyer and colleagues, 2010.

Taxonomic group

Average new species

Crustacea crabs, lobsters, shrimp, barnacles

452

Mollusca squid, octopuses, clams, snails, slugs

379

Pisces fish, including sharks

136

Platyhelminthes flatworms

97

Bacteria and Archaea microbes

94

Annelida segmented worms

84

Cnidaria sea anemones, corals, jellyfish

71

Porifera sponges

59

Other invertebrates

56

Algae

55

Protists microbial eukaryotes

47

Tunicata sea squirts

31stars, sea urchins,
Echinodermata sea
sea cucumbers

30

Nematoda roundworms

30

Bryozoa mat or “moss animals”

26
7

Nemertea ribbon worms
Fungi

4

Mammalia whales<10

Total ~1,650

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

12. An average of about 1,650 new marine species were describedeach year between 2002 and 2006. Although the numbers of new
Mollusca and Crustacea are highest, an average of 156 new species in the well-studied Pisces or fish group astonishes even Census
researchers. Census researchers both collected specimens that might
be new species and helped collate data worldwide about newly described marine species, including many described from specimens
collected before the Census began or on expeditions not flying the
Census flag. Source: Philippe Bouchet and Benoit Fontaine.

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

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12

13. Anaerobic animals living without oxygen have been imagined byscience fiction writers but were not proved to exist on Earth until 2010.
In the deep Mediterranean, a Census team found and added three
new species to the few known species of the group called loriciferans.
Unknown until the 1980s, loriciferans can live their entire lives
hidden in sediment on the seafloor without oxygen. The Nanaloricus
cinzia grows to about 0.3 millimeter long and 0.1 millimeter wide,comparable to the head of a pin. Image: Roberto Danovaro

14. The foraminiferan-like protist called Komokiacea were unknown
in the deep Southern Ocean. Census explorers uncovered 50 species there, of which 35 were unknown anywhere. The snowflake-likecreature in the photograph measures a few millimeters, the size of aflea, and its shell made of sediment grains lends the light beige color.
Image: Andrew J. Gooday

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15. This remarkable red worm, between 20 and 30 centimeters long,
discovered by scientists investigating the Mid-Atlantic Ridge turns out
to belong to a completely new family. In fact, it is not a worm, as they
initially thought, but an “enteropneust” that has more in common withvertebrates than with worms. Image: David Shale

16. In the inhospitable environment on a vent in the southeast Pacificnear Easter Island, Census explorers discovered the yeti crab, Kiwa
hirsuta. Given a species name for its hirsute appearance, its white,hairy look has prompted the nickname yeti for the abominablesnowman, or yeti. The remarkable crab belongs to a new species
and new genus and family, too. Image: Cindy Lee Van DoverCENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

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17. This newly described microbe, a thermoacidophilic archaeon foundin a hydrothermal vent deposit from the Eastern Lau Spreading Centerin the South Pacific near Fiji, exemplifies the rare biosphere. WhereverCensus researchers looked, they found many species in a sample represented by less than one in 10,000 of all individuals, including thosethat occurred only once. Microbe image: Anna-Louise Reysenbach andcolleagues, 2006. Vent image: Anna-Louise Reysenbach

18. In waters deeper than 1,000 meters, scientists found a group oflarge, unusual squids up to 7 meters long and waving large, longfins. They constitute a new family Magnapinnidae, aptly called bigfin
squids. Image: © Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

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19. Species thought to be extinct have been rediscovered. For example, Census scientists found a Jurassic shrimp, Neoglyphea neocaledonica (left)
thought to have become extinct 50 million years ago, and they also encountered a living Caribbean fossil, Pholadomya candida (right), the only
remaining species of a genus of deep-water clams that flourished worldwide for more than 100 million years and was thought during the 1800s
to have vanished long ago. Shrimp image: Bertrand Richer de Forges and Joelle Lai. Clam image: Juan Manuel Díaz

20. Sampling near the shore of the Aleutian Islands (Alaska, USA) in2008 uncovered a new species of large brown seaweed, the Golden
V kelp, Aureophycus aleuticus, distinct enough to be assigned to a new
genus. This kelp with characteristic V-shaped blades, or “leaves,” cangrow as long as 3 meters. Even the relatively well known nearshore environment still harbors unknown species. Image: Max K. Hoberg

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

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16

21. Records of 11,000 marine
species from tiny zooplankton to
sharks and whales assembled
in the Ocean Biogeographic Information System of the Census
revealed hot spots of species diversity. The diversity of coastal
species such as corals and coastal fishes tended to peak around
Southeast Asia, whereas the highdiversity of open-ocean creatures
such as tunas and whales spread
more broadly across the midlatitude oceans. Red indicatesareas of high diversity. Horizontal
tick marks to the right of the color
ramps indicating quartiles of diversity show it takes more diversity
in coastal regions to qualify for ahigh ranking. Source: Derek P. Tittensor and colleagues, 2010

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00.75

Oceanic taxa
0.03

0.87

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22. A census of 25 key oceanic regions rests on information collected during past centuries plus descriptions of thousands of new
species during the decade-long Census. Most of the species fall intoa dozen groups, including many crustaceans and mollusks, fewer
fishes, and only 2 percent other vertebrates. The scarce 2 percent ofspecies that are well-known vertebrates such as whales, seals, andwalruses compared with the 98 percent of other creatures in the
Census reflects the great diversity of marine life hidden among theother creatures. The regional lists of species set a baseline for measuring changes that humanity and nature will cause.
Images: Russ Hopcroft, Gary Cranitch, Julian Finn, Larry Madin,
John Huisman, Katrin Iken, Bernard Picton, and Piotr Kuklinski

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23. Genetic sequences from anemone (Ceriantharia sp.), snail (Clione
limacina), shrimp (Hymenodora glacialis), and sea star (Hymenaster pellucidus) illustrate the analogy between a sequence of genetic units in thecells of a specimen and the barcodes on items for sale in a supermarket.
Each of the four colors represents one of the four nucleotides—cytosine(blue), adenine (green), thymine (red), and guanine (black)—that compose DNA sequences. The gray lines between the colored bars signal
genetic differences. The differences among barcodes enable the assignment of a specimen, even a fragment such as a fin or scale, to a species.
Specimens of the same species will have identical or almost identicalbarcodes. Barcodes: Mark Stoeckle. Images: Cheryl Clarke-Hopcroft,
Russ Hopcroft, Bodil Bluhm, and Katrin Iken

Species indicator vectors
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24. Klee diagrams, named for their analogy to the paintings of Paul Klee, display the genetic separation of species and the intensity of relations
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among species. Blocks of high correlation (red or yellow) on the diagonal reflect
affinities within groups of species, corresponding to taxonomic
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such as fishes, becomes a group of lines that form a box. Klee
diagrams illuminate broad patterns in the genetic structure of biodiversity. The
color map depicts correlations for 5,000 marine species from 10
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phyla. Elasmobranchii, Actinopterygii, and Sarcopterygii are respectively cartilaginous,
ray-finned, and lobe-finned taxa of fishes. The correla%UDFKLRSRGD&KDHWRJQDWKD%U\R]RD
tions coalesce into a coherent picture of categories of marine life. Image: Dirk Steinke

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CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

5. Arthropoda
6. Echinodermata
7. Elasmobranchii
8. Actinopterygii
Sarcopterygii

17

A DECADE OF DISCOVERYGreat White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias.

25. Image: Bodil Bluhm

18

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26. Entering the URL www.iobis.org accesses the tens of millions of what/where/when records assembled in the global marine life database
OBIS. Among fish, the manylight viperfish, Chauliodus sloani, whose distribution is shown here in dark red, can be considered the Everymanof the deep ocean. Census data show the fish has been recorded in more than one-quarter of the world’s marine waters.
Source: Ocean Biogeographic Information System. Image: Encyclopedia of Life

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

27. Specifying the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, produces a map of its range, restricted to the North Atlantic and nearby Arctic waters.
Source: Ocean Biogeographic Information System. Image: Encyclopedia of Life

19

RECENSAMANTUL VIETII MARINEA DECADE OF DISCOVERY20

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28. A map of marine life establishes a baseline for evaluating the outcome of an oil spillin the Gulf of Mexico. One hundred and forty taxonomic experts from 80 institutions and
15 countries associated with the Harte Research Institute, a Census affiliate, established
the baseline of known species in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009 and made it available online
shortly thereafter. The data answer graphically how many species of each taxonomic
group live in different sections of the Gulf of Mexico, at what depth, and on what substrate. The new database sets a baseline of 8,332 species in the north-northeast sector of
the Gulf, where the Deepwater Horizon rig tragedy occurred in 2010.
Image: Harte Research Institute

29. The continental-scale acoustic curtains arrayed by the Census tracked migrations of
18 species, including juvenile Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, thousands ofkilometers along the Pacific coast of North America and in rivers, too. The red spots on
the map indicate the curtains through which animals swim, signal their passage, and giveclues where and how they survive in the oceans. The orange line shows migration of thesalmon the size of a banana spanning 2,500 kilometers in three months. The acoustic
curtains also revealed an unexpected, long migration of the threatened green sturgeon,
Acipenser medirostris, along the continental shelf from U.S. to Canadian waters. A surprising group swam north for the winter. Image: Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking ProjectDISTRIBUTION

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30. Biologging, the use of miniaturized electronic tags to track animals in the wild, revealed unknown
behaviors, movements, physiology,
and environmental preferences ofa variety of ocean animals. Biologging has shown that communities ofsouthern elephant seals, Mirounga
leonina, from different islands surround the harsh environment of Antarctica, demonstrating the principlethat animals inhabit even the farthest reaches of the ocean.
Source: Southern Elephant Seals as
Oceanographic Samplers (SEaOS)
Image: Daniel Costa

Antarctic Peninsula
Crabeater
seals
Elephant seals

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

31. Carrying electronic tags that measure location, temperature,depth, and salinity and communicating with satellites as they swam
and dove, more than 20 species became auxiliary oceanographersin the Census of Marine Life, reporting the environment that theyexperienced. The electronic tags on two elephant seals, Mirounga
leonina, exploring seamounts down to 2,300 meters deep off theWestern Antarctic Peninsula reported their paths, and the ribbons ofcolors on their paths show the temperature and depth measurementsthat they added to Census data. Seamounts seem to be refuelingstations for migratory species. Crabeater seals, Lobodon carcinophagus, made tracks closer to shore. Image: Daniel Costa

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USA

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MexicoCENSUS VAN HET LEVEN IN ZEE

32. Conservation requires knowledge of mating areas and nurseries.
Spawning Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT), Thunnus thynnus, swim along theslopes in the western and eastern Gulf of Mexico. Red and blue colors
on the map indicate high and low probabilities of encountering a bluefin when fishing with longlines in the Gulf of Mexico during 2002 and2005. A long line caught no tuna at the X’s on the map. The narrow bandof 24° to 27° Celsius where most tuna swam prompts the speculation thata small change in temperature would change the timing and location of
spawning. Source: Steven L. H. Teo and Barbara A. Block, 201022

33. By their travels
traced in yellow, eastern Pacific white sharks,
Carcharodon carcharias, showed regularmigrations and intense fidelity to theirhomes. Scientists tagged them in the triangles, and their satellite tags later popped up in the
red circles on the central California shelf. One shark swam to Hawaii,
two circled in the White Shark Café halfway to Hawaii. Genetic analysis shows that distinct populations persistently return to the same networkof coastal places after oceanic migrations.
Source: Salvador Jorgensen and colleagues, 2010

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34. Reports from birds, fish, whales, and other animals carrying small tags reveal highways and neighborhoods of the vast Pacific. Census biologgers followed bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, commuting between
Japan and California and leatherback turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, between Borneo and Mexico. Traveling animals connect all the oceans. Source: Tagging of Pacific Predators. Image: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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35. At dusk in June above the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, scientists encountered a rush hour when animals rise to the surface to feed, as if returning homefor supper. Throughout the hours from noon on the left through the night to about 0800 hours on the right, an echo sounder reflected the presencein green of many animals between depths of 400 and 800 meters. During the night from 2100 to 0500 hours, the echoes shown by colors show
the upward rush hour, even up to the surface. This daily vertical commute of about 400 meters exceeds the distance from bottom to top of the Eiffel
Tower. Spectacular during the summer, the upward commute shrinks during autumn and almost disappears in winter.
Image: Patterns and Processes of the Ecosystems of the Northern Mid-Atlantic project

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

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23

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

36. Image: Daniel Costa

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24

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37. Spanning microscopic plant-like organisms to whales, the Census produced the first all-taxon maps of global marine species using the
distributions of more than 65,000 species from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System. Thirty marine biomes summarize the distributions of many species, each biome representing a region with a distinctive fauna and flora. Image: Mark J. Costello

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25

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38. Image: François Sarano

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39. In villages along the Italiancoast, lobstering was still an integral part of life in the nineteenth
century. Image: Ente Nazionale
Italiano per il Turismo

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

40. A Carthaginian mosaic fromthe end of the fourth century displays the range of nets, rods,
spears, and tridents for catching fish during the Roman era.
Thousands of years ago, peoplecaught sea life near the shore andnear the surface across wide regions such as the Mediterranean.
Image: “Il mare Com’era”

27

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

41 and 42. While recreational fishing removes much less sea life than commercial fishing, recreational fishers do sample marine life, especiallylarge animals. In 1958, after an excursion on a Key West, Florida (USA) charter boat, a family of recreational fishers displayed their trophies,
especially large groupers, subfamily Epinephelinae. In 2007, the size of the fish displayed by the same charter enterprise had plummeted, and themix of species had changed. Images: Monroe County Library (left) and Loren McClenachan and colleagues, 2009

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Diadromous fish+-

Groundfish.0

Reef fish*-

Sharks-*animals that live in the
open ocean

Large pelagics,+

those that live below
1,800 meters
fin-footed mammals
fish-eating mammals
herbivorous mammals

Deep-sea fish

2

Pinnipeds, otters,sirenians*)

Whales-+Sea turtles

0

Coastal birds*)

travel between freshand salt water
live on or near
the bottom*1/)

CENSO DE LA VIDA MARINA

*11)

28

*2,)
43. From 1860 to the present, the average weight of swordfish, Xiphias gladius,caught off the North American coast byeither harpoons or lines declined from asmuch as 270 to near or less than 100 kilograms. A big drop occurred from 1860 to1930. Source: Karen Alexander, Brian R.
MacKenzie, and William Leavensworth

live along the shoreline

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44. Dark-shaded bars indicate that the estimated declines in populations of large marine animals from their historical levels average about 90 percent. Nevertheless, some recovery (shownby light-shaded bars) has been achieved by four groups, including seals, whales, birds, andsuch bottom-dwelling fish species as flounder and sole. These estimates for exploited species inparticular, rather than all marine animals, confirm the feared declines and offer a few hopeful
instances of recovery. Source: Heike K. Lotze and Boris Worm, 2009

ABUNDANCE

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45. Census scientists deployed a new acoustic system to track vast fish populations over tens of thousands of square kilometers of sea along thecontinental shelf. In a snapshot from continuous monitoring along Georges Bank where the Gulf of Maine begins, the new sonar maps tens of
millions of Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus, maintaining a school formation as large as Manhattan island, sometimes as densely as eight fish
per square meter. Image: Nicholas Makris and Purnima Ratilal

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29ÅIREAMH NA BEATHA MHARAA DECADE OF DISCOVERY30

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46. Small life can form large structures. Off Chile, filamentous bacteriaof the genus Thioploca wove mats covering an area the size of the nation of Greece. Census scientists estimated the mats to weigh about 14
million tons, about one-seventh of the weight of the annual world harvestof commercial fisheries. Image: Victor A. Gallardo and Carola Espinoza
Local-scale trends in phytoplankton

Chlorophyll rate of change (mg m-3 yr -1)
47. Since 1899, phytoplankton chlorophyll measured first by ships
and recently by satellites, too, declined in 59 percent of the 364 map
cells with sufficient observations for a determination. It increased in
the yellow and red cells and declined in the blue. The cells borderedin black experienced statistically significant changes, while white cells
had insufficient data. Source: Daniel G. Boyce and colleagues, 2010
Estimated seafloor biomass

48. Census scientists used nearly 200 studies to estimate the biomass on
the seafloor globally from bacteria through fish and other large animals.
The yellow-to-red zones in the map show seafloor biomass reaching 3 to
10 grams of carbon per square meter, or 30 to 100 kilograms per hectare, along several temperate and frigid shores. Carbon typically makes
about half of living biomass. This level of carbon accumulation is small
compared with the tons accumulated per hectare of land in a forest or
even a crop of maize, but still considerable when added over the vast
oceans. In general, the tropical seafloor is poor in biomass while the temperate and polar seafloors are rich. Source: Chih-Lin Wei and Gilbert T. RoweABUNDANCEGDQFHRIOLIHDWWKHERWWRP
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49. A map of the estimated seafloor biomass of bacteria and other kinds of life grouped by size (the small
meiofauna that pass through a 0.3-millimeter sieve, the intermediate macrofauna up to 3 centimeters, and KDOI RI FDUERQ VKRZV LWV
the larger megafauna encompassing both invertebrates and fishes) shows that despite the microscopic ELRPDVV UHDFKLQJ  WR 
size of bacteria, their numbers make their mass far greater than the mass of larger and hence clearly visJUDPVRIFDUERQSHUVTXDUH
ible animals such as fish. Bacteria reach densities of 100 to 1,000 milligrams of carbon per square meter
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(log10 equal 2 or 3) in the tropics and near continents, whereas fish only reach densities of 1 in the tropics
and 10 (log10 equal 0 or 1) elsewhere. Source: Chih-Lin Wei and Gilbert T. RoweJUDPV SHU KHFWDUH DORQJ
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Log10 biomass (mg C m-2)

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50. The global marine life database built by the Census exposes gaps in
our knowledge of the known and unknown. The color spectrum from red
to blue ranges from many to few records. Blank areas have no recordsof reliably indentified marine life. Explorers have yet to explore much of
the high Arctic Ocean for life. Source: Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)RIDZD\WRFKDUWWKHFORVHQHVVRUVHSDUDWLRQDPRQJVSHFLHV
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c. 3.5 x 106 km3

51. OBIS exposes the still-to-be-explored ocean by depth as well as
latitude and longitude. On a cross section of the global oceans, thespectrum from red to blue extends from many to few or no records. The
records are concentrated near shores and in shallow waters, while thelargest habitat on Earth, the vast middle waters, is largely unexplored.
Source: Ocean Biogeographic Information System

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

52. A global map of the nearly 30 million OBIS records of 120,000 species from more than 800 datasets shows the known and unknown ocean
in half-degree squares by latitude and longitude. In blue areas, the Census has aggregated data from before the Census began and from partner
programs and institutions, often assembled by OBIS regional and thematic nodes. Yellow indicates regions with data both from Census partners andfrom the Census’s own expeditions. Red indicates regions with data from Census expeditions where there were no prior data. The records attributable
to and supplemented by the Census are numerous in the Southern Ocean, North Pacific, and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Wide regions, such as
the Eastern Pacific, remain largely unexplored. Source: Ocean Biogeographic Information System

33

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFEHIGHLIGHTSA DECADE OF DISCOVERY

32
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CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

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35

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

Census of Marine Life global community
Census global
coordination

Project
headquarters

National or regional
headquarters

Participating
institution

Participating
country

54. Shading shows the global span of 80 plus nations that participated in the Census of Marine Life. The 2,700 scientists participating camefrom more than 600 institutions and worked in 14 field projects spanning ocean realms from near shore to abyss and latitudes from poles totropics. The global span of National and Regional Implementation Committees, headquarters of the field projects, and participating institutions
such as museums ensured access to expertise and seas. Image: Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization TeamSENSO NG BUHAY SA DAGAT

Census of Marine Life project areas

36

55. Census field projects sampled all major zones and realms of the oceans.
Image: Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization Team

HOW THE CENSUS WORKED

The Census of Marine Life Community

Ian Poiner, Chair, Australia
Victor Ariel Gallardo,
Vice Chair, Chile
Myriam Sibuet,
Vice Chair, France
J. Frederick Grassle,
Past Chair, USA
Vera Alexander, USA
D. James Baker, USA
Patricio Bernal, France/Chile
D. Chandramohan, India
David Farmer, USA/Canada
Serge Garcia, Italy
Carlo Heip,
Netherlands/Belgium
Poul Holm, Ireland/Denmark
Yoshihisa Shirayama, Japan
Michael Sinclair, Canada
Song Sun, China
Meryl Williams,
Australia/Malaysia
Past Committee Members
Donald Boesch, USA
Olav Rune Godø, Norway
Andrew Solow, USA

Partners
Encyclopedia of Life
National Geographic
Galatée Films

Arctic Ocean
ArcOD
Antarctic Ocean
CAML
Mid-Ocean Ridges
MAR-ECO
Vents and Seeps
ChEss
Abyssal Plains
CeDAMarSeamounts
CenSeamContinental Margins
COMARGEContinental Shelves
POST
Near Shore
NaGISA
Coral Reefs
CReefsRegional Ecosystems
GoMA
Microbes
ICoMM
Zooplankton
CMarZ
Top Predators
TOPP
Oceans Past
HMAP
Oceans Future
FMAP
Global Marine Life
Database
OBIS

National and Regional
Implementation
Committees
Arabian Sea: Michel Claereboudt, Oman
Australia: Nic Bax
Canada: Philippe Archambault
Caribbean: Patricia Miloslavich, Venezuela
China: Song Sun
Europe: Isabel Sousa Pinto, Portugal
Henn Ojaveer, Estonia
Indian Ocean: Mohideen Wafar, India
Indonesia: Gabriel Wagey
Japan: Katsunori Fujikura
Republic of Korea: Youn-Ho Lee
South America: Diego Rodriguez, Argentina
Sub-Saharan Africa: Charles Griffiths,
South Africa
United States of America: Andrew Rosenberg

AffiliatedProjects &Collaborators

Marine Barcode of Life
Ocean Tracking Network
Great Barrier Reef
Seabed Biodiversity Project
Gulf of Mexico Biodiversity ProjectWorld Register of Marine Species
MarBEF • HERMES
Google Earth • PLoS ONE
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research(SCOR) Technology Panel

Synthesis GroupPaul Snelgrove, Chair, Canada
Jesse Ausubel, USA
Darlene Trew Crist, USA
Michele DuRand, Canada/ USA
J. Frederick Grassle, USA
Patrick Halpin, USA
Sara Hickox, USA
Patricia Miloslavich, Venezuela
Ron O’Dor, USA/Canada
Myriam Sibuet, France
Edward Vanden Berghe, Belgium
Boris Worm, Germany
Kristen Yarincik, USA

Secretariat, Consortium for Ocean Leadership, USA
Education and Outreach, University of Rhode Island, Office of Marine Programs, USA
Mapping and Visualization, Duke University, Marine Geospatial Ecology Laboratory, USA
56. Image: Census of Marine Life Education and Outreach TeamCENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

GLOBAL COORDINATIONGLOBAL PARTICIPATIONGLOBAL LEADERSHIP

Scientific
Steering
CommitteeSYNTHESIZING RESULTS



Projects

37

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

Projects affiliated with the Census of Marine Life
The Census extended its reach by affiliation with otherprojects and programs. It formed a partnership with the
National Geographic Society to expand cartographic
resources and outreach. The Census Mapping and Visualization Team boosted the creativity and quality of workthroughout the program and served as the liaison with National Geographic’s cartographers and also with Google
Earth, whose ocean layer integrates Census findings.
The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is documenting on the Internet all 1.9 million known living species of animals, plants,
and fungi. Its infinitely expandable page for each species
includes text and also images, graphics, video, and sound.
It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions throughout the world. Partnering with EOL, Census
scientists helped create Web pages for 80,000 species,
which comprise about a third of known marine species.
These species in turn come from the master list of another Census partner, the World Register of Marine Species,
formed in 2006 to provide in perpetuity an authoritativeand comprehensive list of names of marine organisms. A
partnership with Aquamaps allows quick creation of standardized distribution maps for species of fishes, marine
mammals, and invertebrates in OBIS.

The Census also benefited from the formation in 2004 of
the Consortium for the Barcode of Life. The Consortiumand the international Barcode of Life initiative aim to offer a reference library of DNA barcodes for more than
500,000 species by the year 2015. The efforts to speed
barcodes of marine species operate within the subprograms Marine Barcode of Life Initiative (MarBOL) andFish Barcode of Life Initiative (FISHBOL), both headquartered at Ontario’s University of Guelph.
Affiliated projects and programs added depth and scope
to Census work in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the Gulf
of Mexico, the margins of European seas (HERMES, see
below), ecosystem functioning (MarBEF), fisheries science (ICES, PICES, and FAO), seas beyond national
jurisdiction (IUCN), and global change (IGBP/DIVERSITAS). Cooperation with the Partnership for Observationof the Global Oceans (POGO), the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Technology Panel,
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), theIntergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC),and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) helped
integrate the Census with the development of ocean observing systems.

DAANÁIREAMH NA MARAHERMES: Hotspot Ecosystem Research on the Margins of European Seas
MarBEF: Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning, European Union Network of Excellence
ICES: International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
PICES: North Pacific Marine Science Organization
FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization
IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature
IGBP-DIVERSITAS: International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Initiative for Biodiversity

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HOW THE CENSUS WORKED

57

58.
57. Research along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge inspired Norwegian Anne Berg Edvardsen’s sculpture Spikes.
Made of paper and clay and about 40 by 40 centimeters, the sculpture suggests an animal trying to lift
itself, maybe to change direction. Image: Anne Berg Edvardsen
58. The Census inspired the public to examine marine life, too. Image: Megan Moews
59. As marine creatures helped the Census by measuring their environment with electronic tags, so too did
their form and color help the Census catch the interest of the public. The incongruity of the hairy Kiwa hirsuta
that suggested its nickname yeti crab has broad appeal and prompted many to capture its magic, including
skateboarders in search of a wild ride. Image: Nathalie Roland

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CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

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59

39

A DECADE OF DISCOVERYCENSO DA VIDA MARINHA

60. In a notably fruitful collaboration, the Census lent support to Galatée Film Productions to photograph the film Oceans at 54 locations, globally distributed. Census scientists helped conceive
the film and ensure its scientific accuracy, and co-authored with Galatée an illustrated guide withtaxonomic information about all the species in the film. In return, Galatée provided still images andmore than 400 hours of film for Census researchers to study animal behavior in situ.
Image: François Sarano

40

HOW THE CENSUS WORKED

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE
41A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

61. Image: Gary Cranitch

42

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and tropical seas to the Arctic. About a fifth of all known, named species were
crustaceans, which, with mollusks and fishes, make up half of the roll call. The
unprecedented geographical and taxonomic integration showed how collaboration between developed and developing countries expedites discovery.

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

62. National and Regional Implementation Committees of the Census
applied their expertise about nearby
waters to compile a roll call of known
species, estimated unknown species,and ranked threats to diversity. The
numbers of species, the currency ofdiversity, ranged up to 33,000 in
Australian and Japanese waters.
Even in familiar waters, undiscovered
species and microbes will swell the
future number.
Image: Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization Team43

9j[G<A DECADE OF DISCOVERYThe Arctic Ocean Diversity project established the baseline of marine lifein the region. Its search on, in, and under sea ice, in deep basins, and alongcontinental shelves cataloged more than 7,000 animal species, of which atleast 70 are new, plus thousands of microbes. Project researchers documented
recent northward extensions of ranges of invertebrate and fish species, and arising ratio of warm- to cold-water species. Making more than 250,000 records
accessible online, the project allows measuring changes in Arctic life caused byhumanity and natural forces.
Project Leaders
Bodil Bluhm United States
Rolf Gradinger United States
Russ Hopcroft United States
63

64

66
65
63. Ian MacDonald, 64. Katrin Iken, 65. Rolf Gradinger, 66. Katrin Iken

67. Deep in the frigid Canada Basin, a remotely operated vehicle of the Arctic Ocean project captured thepictured jellyfish of the genus Crossota. Image: Kevin Raskoff

44

Coordinating 18 research voyages in the widest-ever survey of the region,
the Census of Antarctic Marine Life project provided the baseline formarine life in the Southern Ocean and then helped establish the monitoringof its change. The project documented more than 16,500 taxa, including hundreds of new species. The researchers identified a single region of seafloor
life under the fastest current on the planet, found colonists from deeper water
beneath melting ice shelves, and showed how Antarctic waters may incubate
new species.
Project Leaders
Michael Stoddart Australia
Victoria Wadley Australia
68
69

;9ED

THE CENSUS TEAMS

71

70

71. In the region of the Polar front near Elephant Island at the
tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, scientists investigating the Southern
Ocean found the pictured lysianassoid amphipod. The small crustacean encountered during an expedition of the R / V Polarsternmost likely belongs to both a new species and a new genus.
Image: Cédric d’Udekem d’Acoz

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

68. Australian Antarctic Division © Commonwealth of Australia
69. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
New Zealand
70. Philippe Koubbi

45

E9J%=;GA DECADE OF DISCOVERYThe Patterns and Processes of the Ecosystems of the Northern
Mid-Atlantic project explored marine life along the world’s longest mountain
range, which rises from the seafloor 4,500 meters deep. The explorers foundapproximately 1,000 species, from small crustaceans to whales, including atleast 30 new species. They found both mid-water animals from deep basins
and bottom-living animals along slopes. Abundance generally peaked wherecool and warm waters met. Project findings supported protection of areas of
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge against harmful bottom fishing totaling 330,000 square
kilometers, larger than Italy.
Project Leader
Odd Aksel Bergstad Norway

72

73

74

75

MANNTALL OVER MARINT DYRELIV

.

46

76
72. Nicola King73 . David Shale
74. Thomas de Lange Wenneck
75. The deep-sea octopod, Stauroteuthis syrtensis
was photographed in 2004 during the
G.O. Sars expedition. It measures
13 cm x 8 cm, about the size of a grapefruit.
Image: David Shale
76. Klokkargaardens Film AB
77. Thomas de Lange Wenneck
78. David Shale

77

78

The Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Ecosystems
project explored life at seeps, vents, and whale falls, where fluids cool, hot,corrosively acidic or rich in natural oils nourish marine life. Here, abundant life
thrives, fueled by chemical reactions rather than sunlight. Using advanced robots, the project extended the known limits to such life—farther north (72° N)
and farther south (60° S), deeper than 4,900 meters and hotter than 407°C.
Project scientists described about 200 new species, bringing to more than 1,000
the number of described species known to live without the sun’s energy.
Project LeadersPaul Tyler United Kingdom
Maria Baker United Kingdom
Chris German United States
Eva Ramirez-Llodra Spain

79

80

;`=kk

THE CENSUS TEAMS

81

82

83

84. In the hot and sulfurous water from a vent in the PacificAntarctic Ridge in the South Pacific, explorers of ventsand seeps found Kiwa hirsuta and named it after thegoddess of shellfish in Polynesian mythology. Because its
hairy appearance suggests the abominable snowman, it
has become known as the “yeti crab.”
Image: Ifremer /Alexis Fifis84

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

79. Craig Smith
80. MARUM, University of Bremen
81. Daichi Fujita
82. MARUM, University of Bremen
83. Anders Warren47;]<9EYj

A DECADE OF DISCOVERYThe Census of the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life project explored
the abyssal plains of major ocean basins, particularly the southern Atlantic and
the Southern Ocean, described more than 500 new abyssal species from unicellular animals to large squid, investigated the feeding of abyssal organisms,
and mapped the distribution of deep-sea life. The project compiled data forestablishing protected seafloor outside national jurisdiction and documented
that climate change, human debris, and seabed mining affect abyssal life.
Project Leaders
Pedro Martinez Arbizu Germany
Craig Smith United States

86

85

87
90

ZENSUS DES MARINEN LEBENS

88

48

85. Myriam Schueller
86. Wiebke Broekeland
87– 88. Brigitte Ebbe
89. Wiebke Broekeland
90. The tiny copepod Ceratonotus steiningeri,
about three or four times as long as a hair iswide, was found in the Angola Basin.
Image: Jan Michels
89

The sphere of the Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts projectencompassed up to 100,000 seamounts rising 1,000 meters or more fromthe seafloor. The project discovered new seamounts, species, and communities and found that seamount inhabitants broadly resemble those on adjacentcontinental slopes. Yet, owing to isolation and slow growth of deep animals,
life on seamounts can struggle to recover from disturbances such as fishing. The
project’s central repository of global seamount data is informing international
negotiations about protecting areas in the high seas.
Project Leaders
Malcolm Clark New ZealandMireille Consalvey New Zealand
Ashley Rowden New Zealand
Karen Stocks United States

92
91

93

94

91. The variety that seamounts contribute toocean topography can also contribute to its biodiversity. In the photograph, a bright orange brisingid sea star is prominent among corals on aseamount. The sea star is feeding by raising its
arms to capture passing food from the Antarctic
Circumpolar Current. Image: National Institute of
Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), New
Zealand.
92. Peter Marriott
93 –95. NIWA
96–98. Global Census of Marine Lifeon Seamounts

95

96

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

9798;]fK]Ye

THE CENSUS TEAMS49

;GE9J?=A DECADE OF DISCOVERYThe Continental Margin Ecosystems on a Worldwide Scale project
explored slopes of all continents during more than 60 expeditions. They founda meager snow of detritus sustained ribbons of life in the mud along slopes
and that the greatest diversity occurs at mid-slope. The project found deep-sea
coral stretching over 400 kilometers long off Mauretania. Elsewhere, vast matsof microbes lived off seafloor methane. The project documented the sensitivityof continental slopes to global changes and to exploitation of deposits of gas
and petroleum.
99
Project Leaders
Myriam Sibuet France
Robert Carney United States
Lenaick Menot France

100

101

102

103

104

RECENSEMENT DE LA VIE MARINE

99. A close-up photograph of the sea cucumber
Enypniastes caught at 2,750 meters on the continental margin in the Celebes Sea between Indonesia and the Philippines reveals its mud-filled intestine
through its transparent body.
Image: Laurence P. Madin

50

100. Joe F. Siebenauller
101. Continental Margin Ecosystems
on a Worldwide Scale102. Myriam Sibuet
103. Matt Kupchik
104. Continental Margin Ecosystems
on a Worldwide Scale105. Robert S. Carney

105

The Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project deployed the first continentalscale array to track marine animals acoustically, and followed juvenile salmon
thousands of kilometers from river to ocean, estimated survival of some oceanmigrating salmon stocks, and discovered surprisingly vast migrations of sturgeon across national boundaries. With an expanding library of 16,000 tracks
from 18 different species from salmon to jumbo squid, the project built a clearinghouse for sharing telemetry data, contributed to the designation of critical
habitat for threatened green sturgeon, and served as a prototype for the global
Ocean Tracking Network.
Project Leader
James Bolger Canada/United States
Past Leaders
George Jackson Australia
Gerry Kristianson Canada
David Welch Canada
107

HGKL

THE CENSUS TEAMS

106

108

109

110

107–108. Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project109. Melinda Jacobs
110. Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

106. With acoustic tags implanted in five species of young Pacific salmon and detected by curtainsof receivers along the coast, scientists reconstructed the direction, speed, and timing of migrating
individuals. Signals from fish like those in the photograph showed the coastal regions and seasonsthat either favor or discourage survival. Image: Galatée Films

51

FY?AK9

A DECADE OF DISCOVERYThe Natural Geography in Shore Areas project initiated the first global
nearshore biodiversity inventory, sampling in seagrass beds and rocky shore
communities using a standardized protocol to establish baseline informationand long-term monitoring of nearshore sites. The project sampled over 200
sites and set up more than 40 long-term sites. It discovered new species andrecorded species and habitats where they had not been previously found. Students in Egypt, Greece, Tanzania, the United States, Venezuela, and Japan
contributed records to the Census through the project.
Project Leaders
Yoshihisa Shirayama Japan
Brenda Konar United States
Katrin Iken United States
Patricia Miloslavich Venezuela
Juan José Cruz Motta Venezuela
Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi Italy
Edward Kimani Kenya
Gerhard Pohle Canada

111

112

113
111. Alaskan scientists studying the nearshore photographed this Nereocystis, a marine alga commonly referred to as bull kelp.
Near the shore and in shallow gulfs of the
Pacific coast of North America, Nereocystis
forms kelp forests on beds of rock. It can grow70 meters long from a root-like holdfast of
about 40 centimeters. Image: Brenda Konar

114

115

112. Tohru Iseto113. Ana Karinna Carbonini
114. Hyakubun Harada
115. Susan Ryan
116. Iacopo Bertocci

116

52

The Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems project partnered to conduct thelargest concerted exploration of life in the world’s coral reefs. It discovered
thousands of likely new species and familiar species in new places as well as
highly diverse unidentified species in tiny samples of dead coral heads. The
project developed a standardized tool, the Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS), to compare distributions of species on reefs as well as monitorchanges such as warming and acidification. The 600 ARMS now deployed
will reveal global patterns in uniform, standardized data.
Project Leaders
Nancy Knowlton United States
Russell Brainard United States
Julian Caley Australia

118;J]]^kTHE CENSUS TEAMS

117

119

120

121

118. Russell Moffitt
119–121. Megan Moews
122. Susan Middleton

122

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

117. On a coral reef off northeastern Australia,
near what Captain Cook named Lizard Island in1770 for its many lizards, Census researchers
collected this new octopus in an Autonomous
Reef Monitoring Structure at a depth of 10–12
meters. The specimen is believed to be a new
species. Image: Julian Finn

53

?gE9

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

Spanning tidal pools to seamounts, the Gulf of Maine Area project assembled more than 4,000 species in a new register and estimated abundanceand diversity of microbes. Analyses showed that habitat explains about a thirdof variation in distribution and abundance of fishes and invertebrates. New sonars created instantaneous, continuous views of species distributions, including
the assembling and swirling of shoals of millions of herring. The novel census
of a large area helps managers consider not just one species at a time but anentire marine ecosystem.
Project Leaders
Sara Ellis Canada/United States
Lewis Incze United StatesPeter Lawton Canada
Past Leaders
Ken Foote United States
Evan Richert United States

124

123

126
125

RÉCENSMAN LA VIE MARIN

123. The 4,000 plus species in the Gulf ofMaine searchable register include the pictured
sea star, Solaster endeca, found along the shoreof Cobscook Bay, Maine. The Census project
found twice as many species and thus greater
biodiversity in the Gulf than previously estimated.
Image: Christina Kulfan

54

124. Susan Ryan
125. Peter Stevick
126. Jon Witman
127. Kelly Bentham127

In the International Census of Marine Microbes, microbiologists from25 countries determined the range of genetic diversity, distribution, and abundance of oceanic microbes. The investigators found diversity at least 10 to
100 times the previous estimate. A liter of seawater contained about 38,000
kinds of bacteria. In more than 1,200 widely distributed marine samples fromwater, sediment, and around animals, researchers found some microbes live
everywhere, while others live in only a few places. They discovered a “rarebiosphere” in which rare microbes account for most ocean diversity.
Project Leaders
Mitchell Sogin United States
Jan de Leeuw Netherlands
Linda Amaral-Zettler United States
128

129

128. The acantharians are one of the fourtypes of large amoebae (microbial eukaryotes)
known to occur in marine open waters. The
2-millimeter-wide specimen, about the size ofa flea, was captured off Bermuda.
Image: Linda Amaral-Zettler

A;gEE

THE CENSUS TEAMS

130

129. Carola Espinoza130. MOVIE131. Victor Gallardo

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

131

55

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY;EYjR

The Census of Marine Zooplankton project produced a global view ofdiversity and distribution of holozooplankton, the animals that drift in ocean
currents throughout their lifespan. Researchers collected more than 10,000
samples from every ocean basin. Training 250 new taxonomists, they discovered more than 85 new species, 7 new genera, and 2 new families, many ofwhich are already formally described. They used genetic profiles to develop
characteristic fingerprints for all the zooplankton life in any volume of water.
Project Leaders
Ann Bucklin United States
Shuhei Nishida Japan
Sigrid Schiel Germany

132

133

134

YFIRLIT YFIR LÍFRÍKI HAFSINS

132. When U.S. and Filipino zooplankton
scientists searched the Celebes Sea for new species in
its deep water, they discovered and temporarily named
this worm, about 10 centimeters long with tentacles,
squidworm. One of the small animals that floats or swims
weakly, the squidworm turned out to be a new species ofpolychaete in the class of annelid worms.
Image: Laurence P. Madin

56

133. M.D. Allison
134. Nancy Copley
135. Laurence P. Madin
136. Bruce Cowden
137. M.D. Allison

136

137

The Tagging of Pacific Predators project tagged and tracked 4,300 marine predators of 23 species on their journeys. Electronic signals from tags
relayed to satellites and on to researchers—and sometimes to the public—displayed animals spanning entire oceans, moving from the poles to the tropics
and from continent to continent. Other tags electronically measured and loggedcharacteristics of the surrounding water as the animals swam and dove. Tagged
animals frequently migrated along corridors to ocean “hot spots,” where many
individuals—and multiple species—congregate for extended periods.
Project Leaders
Barbara Block United States
Steven Bograd United States
Daniel Costa United States
Randy Kochevar United States
Past Leaders
John Gunn Australia
Geoff Arnold Australia

LGHH

THE CENSUS TEAMS

138

139

140

141
142

144

138. As bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, traveled, their electronic tags recorded their journeys forresearchers studying top predators. In all, 23 species were tracked feeding, mating, and migratingin the Pacific. Image: Richard Hermann
139. Josh Adams
140 –143. Tagging of Pacific Predators
144. Daniel Costa

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

143

57

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY@E9H

Studying old and even ancient artifacts and archives, the systematic collaboration between humanities and sciences of the History of Marine Animal
Populations project found evidence of how humanity and nature change
marine life. The utility of the evidence for managing ocean life established thediscipline of marine environmental history. Shell jewelry, mosaics, records oftaxation on fishing boats, whaling logs, and menus revealed changing marine
life and its causes—sometimes storms, sometimes climate, and especially, human harvest of animals and destruction of habitats.

Project Leaders
Poul Holm Ireland
Brian MacKenzie Denmark
Anne Husum Marboe Denmark
Bo Poulsen Denmark
Andrew Rosenberg United States

145

146

145. Marine historians reconstructed the state of marine life
when this seventeenth-century European gentleman dressed
to go fishing. From past states and the present, the scientists
assessed the changes caused by human and natural forces.
Detail of a print by Nicholas DeLarmessin

147

146. History of Marine Animal Populations
147. Andrzej Antczak
148. Pieter Bruegel the ElderCENSUS LIVET I HAVENE

148

58

The Future of Marine Animal Populations project advanced tools
for analyzing data from fishing and scientific surveys to determine changes
in diversity, distribution, and abundance. Researchers used the entire Census
database to define hot spots of diversity and to estimate undiscovered species.
They identified the importance of water temperature in shaping diversity patterns
and ways climate change might redistribute marine life. They documented how
overexploitation caused rapid population declines and conservation helped
recoveries. They uncovered patterns of animal movements that showed where
animals tend to concentrate when feeding.
Project Leaders
Ian Jonsen Canada
Heike Lotze Canada
Boris Worm Canada
Past Leader
Ransom A. Myers Canada
149

150

151

149. Sharks prey on circling fish near Cocos Islandin the eastern tropical Pacific. While marine life
thrives in some areas, large predators are threatened across much of their ranges. To project futuremarine life, scientists analyzed large sets of observations of past populations of a range of animals,
including sharks. From the historical baselines thatthey established, they saw many declines and a few
recoveries of numbers. Image: © Bob Cranston

152

153

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

150. Boris Worm
151. Future of Marine Animal Populations
152. Boris Worm, et al.
153. Alexandra Morton>E9H

THE CENSUS TEAMS59

A DECADE OF DISCOVERYG:AKThe Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), built by the
Census, forms the world’s largest online repository of spatially referenced marine life data. Its present nearly 30 million records from more than 800 datasets
locate species from Aaptolasma americana to Zyzzyzus warreni in all parts of
the world’s oceans in an evolving but permanent repository. It identifies diversity
hot spots and broad patterns, tracks dispersion of species, and integrates species locations with temperature, salinity, and depth. Online, it instantaneously
maps the distribution of specimens of a species.
Project Leaders
Edward Vanden Berghe United States
J. Frederick Grassle United States
Past Leader
Mark J. Costello New Zealand

154
155

156

157

159

158

160

154. Maps of all observations in the Census database show the
known and unknown ocean. A map centered on the Atlantic displays
the general state: Observations are most numerous near surface, nearshore, and near or between rich nations. Wide expanses await exploration. Image: Ocean Biogeographic Information System

HAVSLIVSRÄKNINGEN

155. Ocean Biogeographic Information System
156–157. Brook Herlach
158. Edward Vanden Berghe
159. Ocean Biogeographic Information System
160. Edward Vanden Berghe

60PHOTO CREDITS & IMAGE SOURCESCENSUS OF MARINE LIFE

1–2. Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization Team
3–6. Lianne Dunn, Liannedunn.com
7. Gary Cranitch, Queensland Museum, Brisbane
8. Jim Toomey, www.slagoon.com
9. E. Paul Oberlander
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
10. Bodil Bluhm, University of Alaska Fairbanks
11. William N. Eschmeyer, et al.
“Marine fish diversity: History of knowledge and discovery.”Zootaxa, 2525: 19–50, 201012. 2002–2006 dataset compilation and analysis by
Philippe Bouchet and Benoit Fontaine,
Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris
13. Roberto Danovaro, University of Ancona, Italy
14. Andrew J. Gooday, National Oceanography Centre,
Southampton, United Kingdom
15. David Shale, www.deepseaimages.co.uk
16. Cindy Lee Van Dover, Duke University Marine Laboratory, North Carolina
17. Microbe: Anna-Louise Reysenbach, et al. Adapted bypermission, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Nature, 442 (7101):
444 – 447, 2006. Vent: Anna-Louise Reysenbach andWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
18. © 2001, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute,
California
19. Bertrand Richer de Forges and Joelle Lai, IRD Noumeá,
New Caledonia (shrimp), Juan Manuel Díaz, Insttuto
Humboldt and Fundación MarViva, Colombia (clam)
20. Max K. Hoberg, Institute of Marine Science University of
Alaska Fairbanks
21. Derek P. Tittensor, et al. Reprinted from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature, 2010/07/28 online
22. From top: Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Gary Cranitch, Queensland Museum, Brisbane
Colomban de Vargas © EPPO/SB Roscoff, France
Julian Finn, Museum Victoria, Melbourne
Gary Cranitch, Queensland Museum, Brisbane
Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
John Huisman, Murdoch University, Perth
Katrin Iken, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Bernard Picton, National Museums of Northern Ireland
Piotr Kuklinski, Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academyof Sciences, Sopot, Poland
23. Barcode: Mark Stoeckle, Rockefeller University, New York.
Images: Cheryl Clarke-Hopcroft, Russ Hopcroft, Bodil
Bluhm, and Katrin Iken, University of Alaska Fairbanks
24. Dirk Steinke, University of Guelph, Ontario
25. Bodil Bluhm, University of Alaska Fairbanks
26 – 27. Ocean Biogeographic Information System (source)
Encyclopedia of Life (image)
28. Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University
Corpus Christi
29. Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking
30. Southern Ocean Seals as Oceanographic Samplers,
University of St. Andrews, Scotland (source), Daniel
Costa (image)
31. Daniel Costa, Tagging of Pacific Predators

32. Image from “Habitat utilization of the Gulf of Mexico bybluefin and yellowfin tuna,” Teo and Block, PLoS ONE,2010
33. Salvador Jorgensen, et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277 (1682): 679
34. Tagging of Pacific Predators. Reprinted from Life in
the World’s Oceans: Diversity, Distribution, and Abundance, Alasdair McIntyre (editor), Blackwell PublishingLtd., 2010
35. Patterns and Processes of the Ecosystems of the Northern
Mid-Atlantic project
36. Daniel Costa. Courtesy of the U.S. Antarctic Marine
Living Resources Program, Southwest Fisheries Science
Center, La Jolla, California
37. Mark J. Costello, University of Auckland, New Zealand
38. François Sarano, Galatée Films
39. Ente Nazionale Italiano per il Turismo
40. Yacoub, M., Splendors of Tunisian Mosaics, Tunis, 1995,
Fig. 175. from “Il mare Com’era,” by R. Gertwagen, S.
Raicevich, T. Fortibuoni, O. Giovanardi (Eds.). Le interazioni tra uomo ed ambiente nel Mediterraneo dall’epoca
Romana al XIX secolo: una visione storica ed ecologicadelle attività di pesca. Atti del II Workshop internazionale HMAP del Mediterraneo e Mar Nero. Chioggia,
27–29 settembre 2006. Supplemento ai Quaderni ex
ICRAM
41. Wil-Art Studio, courtesy of Monroe County Library, Key
West, Florida
42. Reprinted from Loren McClenachan, “Documenting lossof large trophy fish from the Florida Keys with historicalphotographs,” Conservation Biology, Jan. 13, 2009, pp.
636–643, John Wiley and Sons
43. Brian R. MacKenzie, Technical University of Denmark,Copenhagen
44. Reprinted from Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Vol. 24,#5, Heike K. Lotze and Boris Worm, “Historical baselines for large marine animals,” May 2009, with permission from Elsevier
45. Nicholas Makris, Purnima Ratilal, and the OAWRS Visualization Team
46. Victor A. Gallardo and Carola Espinoza, Universidad
de Concepción, FONDECYT Project 1070552
47. Daniel G. Boyce, et al., “Global phytoplankton decline
over the past century.” Reprinted by permission from
Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature, 466 (7306): 591–
596, 201048 – 49. Chih-Lin Wei and Gilbert T. Rowe, Texas A&M University at Galveston
50 – 52. Ocean Biogeographic Information System
53. Alison K. Stimpert, Duke University, North Carolina
54– 55. Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization Team
56. Census of Marine Life Education and Outreach Team
57. Anne Berg Edvardsen, www.anne-b-edvardsen.com
58. Megan Moews, NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science
Center, Honolulu, 2009
59. Nathalie Roland, www.headphonerecord.com/Nathalie_
Roland/welcome.html
60. François Sarano, Galatée Films
61. Gary Cranitch, Queensland Museum, Brisbane
62. Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization Team61

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

ArcOD
63. Ian MacDonald, Florida State University. Scientists andcrew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy stand on theice in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean.
64. Katrin Iken, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Diver photographs fauna below the ice of the central Arctic.
65. Rolf Gradinger, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Helicopter view of the Healy.
66. Katrin Iken, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Diver surfaces after a dive under Arctic sea ice.
67. Kevin Raskoff, Monterey Peninsula College, California

SENSUS BIOTA LAUT

CAML
68. Australian Antarctic Division, © Commonwealth of Australia.
Revealed by the powerful lights of a trawl-mounted camera, these elegant solitary sea squirts, or tunicates, standhalf a meter high on the seabed, 200 meters below thesurface of the sea off Terre Adélie. They were photographed during the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine
Census (CEAMARC) voyage to the Southern Ocean in
2010. Solitary sea squirts are fast growing, early colonizers that take advantage of new habitat created byicebergs scouring the seabed.
69. National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research(NIWA) New Zealand, 2007. Census researchers on
R/V Tangaroa hold giant Macroptychaster sea stars.
70. Philippe Koubbi, Institut Paul Émile Victor and Centre
national de la recherche scientifique. The Japanese
research vessel R/V Umitaku Maru participated with
two other vessels during the International Polar Year
2007/08 in the CEAMARC voyage to study life in thewaters off East Antarctica.
71. Cédric d’Udekem d’Acoz, Flanders Marine Institute,
Oostende, Belgium

62

MAR-ECO72. Nicola King, Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Abyssal grenadiers, Coryphaenoides armatus, were photographed by one of MAR-ECO’s ROBIO landers deployed on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
73. David Shale, www.deepseaimages.co.uk. A deepwater
lizard fish. An ambush predator usually seen sitting motionless on the seafloor.
74. Thomas de Lange Wenneck, Institute of Marine Research,
Norway. An orange roughy that is probably more than
100 years old is held by a scientist
75. David Shale, www.deepseaimages.co.uk
76. Klokkargaardens Film AB. Launching of the manned
submersible MIR to dive to 4,200 meters in the CharlieGibbs Fracture Zone, 2003.
77. Thomas de Lange Wenneck, Institute of Marine Research,
Norway. Researchers sort a deepwater bottom trawl
sample.
78. David Shale, www.deepseaimages.co.uk. After two months
aboard Norway’s state-of-the-art R/V G.O. Sars, 60 scientists from 13 countries returned from the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge with unprecedented quantity and quality of samples and data, impressive video footage captured byrobotic submersibles, sonar data showing deep donutsof plankton 10 kilometers in diameter, and photographsof many probable new species among the more than80,000 specimens collected.

ChEss
79. Craig Smith, University of Hawaii. A 30-ton grey whale
was studied with respect to community succession overmany years.
80. MARUM, University of Bremen, © 2006. Near a vent
3 kilometers beneath the equatorial Atlantic, Census researchers, using equipment attached to the remotely operated vehicle Quest, found shrimp and other life forms.
They were found living near a hydrothermal vent billowing
chemical-laden water at an unprecedented 407° C, a temperature that melts lead easily. It was the hottest marine
temperature ever recorded.
81. Daichi Fujita, Japan
82. MARUM, University of Bremen, The remotely operated
vehicle Isis withstands crushing pressures and extreme
temperatures to study the geology, geochemistry, and biology of hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Ecosystems project
83. Anders Warren, Swedish Museum of Natural History
84. Alexis Fifis, French Research Institute for Exploitation of
the Sea
CeDAMar85. Myriam Schueller, University of Bochum. R/V Polarsternin the Southern Ocean.
86. Wiebke Broekeland, Senckenberg Research Institute,Frankfurt. The Epibenthic Sledge coming back with benthic animals from the abyssal seafloor of the Weddell
Sea.
87. Brigitte Ebbe, Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt.
Large benthic fauna caught with an Agassiz Trawl in theSouthern Ocean is being separated from the deep-sea
mud.
88. Brigitte Ebbe, Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt.
Scientists prepare a box corer for deployment.
89. Wiebke Broekeland, Senckenberg Research Institute,Frankfurt. Scientists process a collected sediment sample.
90. Jan Michels, Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt
CenSeam
91. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research,
New Zealand
92. Peter Marriott, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand, R/V Tangaroa about
to set sail.
93. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research,
New Zealand. Orange roughy swimming over a seamount.
94–95. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research,
New Zealand. Towed cameras, such as the deep-towed
imaging system (DTIS) have been used to collect video
and photographs of seamount communities.
96. Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts. The CenSeam Steering Committee, 2008
97. Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts. In 2008
CenSeam-linked researchers sampled seamounts along
the Macquarie Ridge.
98. Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts. The CenSeam
Steering Committee, 2007

PHOTO CREDITS & IMAGE SOURCESCOMARGE
99. Laurence P. Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
100. Joe F. Siebenauller, Louisiana State University. After towing an otter trawl on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico for
two hours, LSU technician Sean Keenan and ship’s crew
prepare to remove the sample of deep-sea life onto apitching deck.
101. Continental Margin Ecosystems on a Global Scale. Attendees at “Towards a Globalization of COMARGE”
workshop at the Institut Océanographique, Paris, June
2006102. Myriam Sibuet, French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. On board the l’Atlante, Lenaick Menot
handles African margin samples obtained with the ROV
Victor 6000.
103. Matt Kupchik, Louisiana State University. Deep sampling
proceeds around the clock. A beam trawl is recoveredat 0300 from 2,200 meters in the Gulf of Mexico as
graduate student Erin Becker and Dr. Bob Carney watch
and wait to process the sample of deep-sea life.
104. Continental Margin Ecosystems on a Global Scale.
COMARGE Steering Committee meeting, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 2007.
105. Robert S. Carney, Lousiana State University. Scientist andpilot wait expectedly in the acrylic shpere of the manned
submersible Johnson Sealink suspended over the ocean
while the ship manuvers for a precision launch to 800
meters on the margin of the Gulf of Mexico.
POST
106. Courtesy of Galatée Films. Sockeye salmon, Port Banks,
Alaska, USA
107. Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project, 2006. A researcher displays a tagged salmon smolt.
108. Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project, 2006. Tagged
salmon are released into the Pacific Ocean.
109. Melinda Jacobs, Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project/
Kintama Research Corporation. Acoustic receivers await
final programming before deployment along the Pacificcoast of North America.
110. Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society. A tagged
sturgeon is released by researchers.

GoMA
123. Christina Kulfan, Suffolk University, Boston
124. Susan Ryan, University of Southern Maine, 2007.
GoMA researchers collect samples along Maine’s Cobscook Bay coastline.
125. Peter Stevick, Gulf of Maine Area Program, 2005. Twohumpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, feed on
red krill.
126. Jon Witman, Brown University, 2008. Divers retrieve atime-lapse camera from isolated Cashes Ledge.
127. Kelly Bentham, Bedford Institute of Oceanography,
Canada, 2010 (with permission from Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility). Ship-board researchers
direct a remotely operated vehicle in the Northeast
Channel Coral Conservation area.
ICoMM
128. Linda Amaral-Zettler, Marine Biological Laboratory,
Woods Hole
129. Carola Espinoza, Universidad de Concepción, Chile.
Giant sulfur bacteria inhabit anoxic sediments in theeastern South Pacific.
130. Microbial Oceanography at the University of Vienna(MOVIE). Researchers collect dark ocean seawater for
microbial DNA samples during a cruise in the Romanche
Fracture Zone (19°W, 0°N) of the equtorial Atlantic.
131. Victor Gallardo, Universidad de Concepción, Chile.
Bacterial mats that thrive mostly on hydrogen sulfide
were found off the coast of Chile.

CENSUS OF MARINE LIFENaGISA
111. Brenda Konar, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2004
112. Tohru Iseto, Kyoto University, 2009. Hua Thai Tuyen col lects a sediment core from a seagrass bed in Vietnam.
113. Ana Karinna Carbonini, Universidad Simón Bolívar,Venezuela, 2010. The NaGISA sampling protocols havebecome teaching tools at several high schools and universities around the world, as students in Venezuela demonstrate.
114. Hyakubun Harada, Kyoto University, 2009. Coastal
researchers study bivalve taxonomy at a workshop in
Penang, Malaysia.
115. Susan Ryan, University of Southern Maine, 2007. The
late Dr. Robin Rigby who was instrumental in integrating nearshore sampling in the Gulf of Maine, prepares
quadrats for sampling.
116. Iacopo Bertocci, University of Pisa, 2006. Divers collectsubtidal samples from the Mediterranean Sea along
the Calafuria rocky coast near Livorno, Italy.

CReefs117. Julian Finn, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
118. Russell Moffitt, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Islands Fisheries Science
Center (PIFSC), Papahanaumokuakea, Hawaii, 2008. A
NOAA diver installs Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) at Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
119. Megan Moews, NOAA PIFSC, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2008.
CReef’s PI’s Nancy Knowlton, Rusty Brainard, and Julian
Caley process test ARMS retreived off of the Island of
Oahu, Hawaii, during the 2008 ARMS sampling, processing, and molecular development workshop.
120 – 121. Megan Moews, NOAA PIFSC, Honolulu, Hawaii,
2009. In 2009, Census scientists launched a “Handson-ARMS” outreach effort that targeted elementary andjunior high school children, but has since reached over
6,000 people and with plans to make it worldwide.
122. Susan Middleton © 2006, courtesy of Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument. A spectacular anemone hermit crab captured in the French
Frigate Shoals off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
The shiny gold on its claws is a phenomenon not seen
before. Scientists believe it may serve as a form of communication. The crab also has its very own species ofanemone attached to its shell (brown, fuzzy area below the shell), which is not known to attach to any otherspecies of hermit crabs. This is but one example of how
Census discoveries often pose more questions than theyanswer.

63

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY

CMarZ
132. Laurence P. Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
133. M.D. Allison, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
2006. Researcher Russell R. Hopcroft (University of
Alaska Fairbanks) aboard the R/V Ronald H. Brown
photographs live zooplankton.
134. Nancy Copley, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2006. Zooplankton net heading to 5,000 meters
depth, towed by the R/V Ronald H. Brown in the Sargasso Sea.
135. Laurence P. Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Bluewater divers silhouetted against the ocean
surface. The safety diver (in the foreground) carries ashort stick hanging down from his clip to push away
curious sharks. The other diver swims with a collecting
bag filled with jars to hold small animals. Another bag
is clipped to the down-line below the trapeze. The lines
on the right side of the photo are clipped to two otherdivers (not shown).
136. Bruce Cowden, bosun of the R/V Ronald H. Brown, 2006.
Illustration of three-gilled angry bosunfish.
137. M.D. Allison, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
2006. Vials of copepods ready for DNA sequencing.
TOPP
138. Richard Hermann, Galatée Films
139. Josh Adams, Tagging of Pacific Predators. Darren Scottwith tagged sooty shearwater.
140. Courtesy of Tagging of Pacific Predators. TOPP whale
researcher Bruce Mate returns to the ship.
141. Courtesy of Tagging of Pacific Predators. The TOPP
whale taggers returning to the dock.
142. Courtesy of Tagging of Pacific Predators. TOPP scientists
at work tagging a bluefin tuna.
143. Courtesy of Tagging of Pacific Predators. A salmon
shark is raised onto the boat for tagging.
144. Daniel Costa, University of California, Santa Cruz. A
team tags a Northern Elephant Seal.
HMAP
145. Detail of a print by Nicholas De Larmessin.
146. Courtesy of History of Marine Animal Populations.
Whaling logbook from November 1838.

147. Andrzej Antczak, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas,
Venezuela. Between 1200 and 1500 CE, more than 5
million conchs were harvested leaving this pre-Hispanic
megamidden, or shell mound, of queen conch, Strombus gigas, on La Pelona Island, Los Roques Archipelago,
Venezuela.
148. Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, drawing, Pieter van der Heyden, engraving, Big Fish Eat Little Fish, 1557
FMAP
149. © Bob Cranston
150. Boris Worm, Dalhousie University. FMAP researcher
performs an underwater transect off the coast of Belize
to study the effects of fishing on species richness.
151. Future of Marine Animal Populations. This animal movement diagram shows linking of multiple environmental
and tracking datasets to explore animal movement, behavior, and habitat use.
152. Worm, et al., 2005. Science 309: 1365–1369. Changes in tuna and billfish species richness over time (expected species per 50 individuals). These long-term
declines correlated with increasing pressure.
153. Alexandra Morton. The late Ransom A. Myers near the
Ahta River in British Columbia, 2007.
OBIS
154. Ocean Biogeographic Information System, Census ofMarine Life Mapping and Visualization Team
155. Ocean Biogeographic Information System. Since
2000, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System
has grown to nearly 28 million records of more than
120,000 species from more than 800 datasets. The red
dots on the map show the global distribution of OBIS
records.
156. Brook Herlach, Rutgers University, New Jersey. J. Frederick Grassle, former chair of the Census of Marine Life
Scientific Steering Committee and project leader of
OBIS at Rutgers University.
157. Brook Herlach, Rutgers University, New Jersey. William
Stafford at work in Rutgers University Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, host institute to the international OBIS Secretariat.
158. Edward Vanden Berghe, Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Brook Herlach at work in Rutgers University Institute forMarine and Coastal Sciences, host institute to the international OBIS Secretariat.
159. Courtesy of Ocean Biogeographic Information System.
The OBIS Governing Board, which met regularly to ensure the integration of worldwide data.
160. Edward Vanden Berghe, Rutgers University, New Jer-sey.
Fabio Lang da Silveira, Chair of OBIS’ Managers Committee, and Daphne Fautin, head of the OBIS delegation
to GBIF, at the eBiosphere conference in London, June2009.

Mother and calf Weddell seal
Terre Adélie, Antarctica, 2007.
Image: Galatée Films

64

2000•2001•2002•2003•2004•2005•2006•2007•2008•2009•2010

FIRST CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE 2010 HIGHLIGHTS OF A DECADE OF DISCOVERIY

Census of Marine Life Projects
Arctic Ocean: ArcOD
Antarctic Ocean: CAML
Mid-Ocean Ridges: MAR-ECO
Vents and Seeps: ChEss
Abyssal Plains: CeDAMar
Seamounts: CenSeam
Continental Margins: COMARGE
Continental Shelves: POST
Near Shore: NaGISA
Coral Reefs: CReefs
Regional Ecosystems: GoMA
Microbes: ICoMM
Zooplankton: CMarZ
Top Predators: TOPP
Oceans Past: HMAP
Oceans Future: FMAP
Global Marine Life Database: OBIS

National and Regional
Implementation Committees
Arabian Sea
Australia
CanadaCaribbean
China
EuropeIndian Ocean
Indonesia
Japan
Republic of Korea
South America
Sub-Saharan Africa
United States of America

CENSUS
OF MARINE LIFE

A species first described by Linnaeus
in 1758, and a member of a family
defined by Charles Darwin in 1852,
Lepas anserifera, attaches its flexible stalk to floating objects such as
driftwood, fishing boats, and plastic
bottles. Exemplifying a familiar, cosmopolitan species, the goose barnacle still
surprises us with its beauty.
Image: David Shale © 2004