17 MAY 2022 | eDNA Sampling uncovering threatened fish species
Over the past 12 months, OzFish Unlimited, Australia’s fishing conservation charity, has taken citizen science to the next level using advanced technology and its army of recreational fishing volunteers. With the support of the international charity Global Giving, volunteer anglers can identify fish and other species, even the rarest of fish species, through water samples that have undergone environmental DNA (eDNA) assessment. Until now, sampling fish has been a challenge. There have been only a few ways to determine what fish species are in a specific waterway, and most of those are either highly skilled tasks such as electrofishing or highly destructive, like netting. EDNA allows researchers to obtain DNA from a simple water sample.