Revitalising Marine Taxonomy: Capacity Building and Innovation through the Ocean Census

Marine taxonomy—the science of discovering, describing, and classifying marine organisms—is the cornerstone of understanding our ocean biodiversity. Despite its critical importance for conservation, sustainable management, achieving global targets like the 30-by-30 initiative, and helping to tackle climate destabilisation, food insecurity and biodiversity destruction, taxonomy is facing a crisis. Taxonomy is in decline due to lack of investment and retirements, whilst novel techniques are still under utilised in this field.

Taxonomist positions are limited by insufficient funding, and a lack of training opportunities. Accepted processes do not yet take full advantage of new technologies, with many methods being time-consuming and often inaccessible to researchers in low and middle income nations. These limitations hamper knowledge exchange and slow the discovery of new species.

The need to invest in documenting biodiversity and the skills required to do this is urgent and advancements in technology offer transformative potential enabling faster and more accurate species identification and fostering global knowledge exchange - at speed and scale.

This presentation explores the urgent need to accelerate species discovery, to increase capacity in marine taxonomy and biodiversity research, and how modern methodologies can address current challenges. We will present data highlighting the need to discover ocean life, how discovery can help tackle global challenges and help nations meet national and international commitments. The session will also reveal the rapid evolution of taxonomic practices and how new technologies are being harnessed to rejuvenate the field.

We will introduce initiatives by The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census Alliance, a global collaborative programme - combining scientists from over 350 institutes - dedicated to accelerating marine species discovery. The Ocean Census is actively building capacity through workshops, training programmes, and funding support, particularly targeting early-career scientists and researchers from underrepresented regions. 

Our work aligns with the conference themes of inspiring responsibility and respect for the ocean by integrating across knowledge systems and ensuring science informs ocean action through ambitious investment in inclusive fundamental research and interdisciplinary knowledge generation. We advocate for renewed investment in taxonomy as a fundamental science essential for informed ocean stewardship. Attendees will gain insights into how collective efforts in capacity building and technological innovation can overcome the taxonomic impediment, ultimately contributing to more effective conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity.