A new study, published in the journal Marine Environmental Research, opens promising new avenues for the future of marine monitoring in the Mediterranean. At the heart of the research is the M.A.R.E. project (Marine Adventure for Research and Education) – an initiative by Fondazione Centro Velico Caprera with scientific coordination by One Ocean Foundation – which combined traditional visual surveys with the collection of environmental DNA (eDNA) in the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
What’s new? The development of six new species-specific genetic markers for monitoring marine animals (such as sea turtles and fin whales), and the discovery of elusive species like the Risso’s dolphin, detected for the first time at a Mediterranean-wide scale using eDNA.
