eDNA provides an affordable alternative to measure fish populations.
Traces of DNA that fish species leave behind in the water can reveal the abundance and distribution of fish over large areas of the ocean as accurately as conventional fisheries survey methods, new research shows.
The research published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B demonstrates for the first time that environmental DNA, known as eDNA, offers a less-expensive means of measuring populations of fish such as Pacific hake, or whiting, which supports the largest commercial fishery off the West Coast. Fishery managers and fishing fleets depend on such assessments to understand the distribution of species and how many fish fishing fleets can catch.
“This information is a staple for fisheries management, and eDNA can potentially provide it in a cost-effective way,” said Andrew Shelton, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle and lead author of the research. “It gives you a snapshot of what fish are in the water without ever catching any.”
Scientists tested the power of eDNA off the West Coast by gathering water samples at multiple depths across 186 locations off the West Coast during hake surveys on the NOAA research ship Bell M. Shimada in 2019.
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