Making Ocean Life Count

Burgeoning marine life database tops 5 million records, 38,000 species

Scientists add over 4 million new records, 13,000 species in 2004;
Exponential growth of “information seaway” tops Census highlights

Even in Europe and the best studied seas, the rapid ongoing discovery of new marine species shows no end in sight, according to the world’s first Census of Marine Life, a massive collaboration to catalog and map marine species worldwide involving hundreds of scientists in more than 70 countries.

The Census database has assembled more than 5.2 million records mapping the distribution of 38,000 marine species, an exponential increase from 1.1 million records and 25,000 species at this time last year. The progress, which tops a list of Census highlights in 2004, will be announced at a meeting of experts in Hamburg, Germany Nov. 29, along with news of a network of regional organizations being formed to advance the world’s “information seaway.” A meeting of the CoML International Scientific Steering Committee will follow in Paris , Dec. 1 to 3.

Full news release OBIS Census of Marine Life under www.alphagalileo.org/nontextfiles/News_release.pdf