What's really living beneath the waves, right where you live?

Ocean Detectives is a growing citizen science initiative from Underwater Earth, empowering students and community groups to monitor the marine life on their own doorstep, using simple, powerful environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling.

How it started

Ocean Detectives began as a pilot project at Bondi Beach, where students from Rose Bay Secondary College have spent 12 months collecting water samples from North and South Bondi. Each sample was sent for eDNA analysis, revealing the extraordinary range of marine life living just offshore, all discovered without a single net or dive.

The pilot was made possible through support from Blue World's Valerie Taylor Ocean Prize and Waverley Council's Our Place Local Community Fund.

Where it's headed

Bondi is where Ocean Detectives started. It won't be where it ends.

We're building towards a growing network of Australian schools and community groups, each one championing their own stretch of coastline, using the same simple, accessible eDNA science to find out what's living there, and sharing what they discover with their own communities.

Every sample collected also feeds into a number of open access global databases, turning local curiosity into data the wider scientific community can use.

Follow the Bondi pilot

You can follow the Bondi findings on Instagram.

Get involved

Interested in bringing Ocean Detectives to your school or local coastline? We'd love to hear from you.

Send us an Expression of Interest email.