Discover Life.

Ocean life gives us air to breathe, creates food for billions, regulates our climate and provides vital scientific advances to fight disease.

We need to discover and protect ocean life to sustain and benefit all life on Earth, for generations to come.

Rapid evolutions in high resolution imaging, DNA sequencing and machine learning now enable discovery of ocean life at speed and scale.

Ocean Census has five core aims: expeditions to discover new life, advancing science through cyber-taxonomy, enabling open access data to catalyse conservation, innovating and amplifying storytelling to inspire public and policy interest, and building an inclusive, international network of biodiversity scientists.

Our data is open access for science, decision makers and the public for non-commercial use to inform and catalyse the protection of ocean life for future generations.  Our Equity Principles are key to our success.

Ocean Census is an open network of partners – bringing together philanthropy, government and business with science, media and civil society. It is founded and coordinated by The Nippon Foundation and Nekton.

Launched in April 2023, Ocean Census funds and manages core programmes – including expeditions, Ocean Census Science Network, the Ocean Life Cyber-Biodiversity System (data), species discovery and the Ocean Life Media Centre.

Ocean Census Science Network combines taxonomists and marine biodiversity scientists from institutes and museums globally who are at the heart of expeditions, species discovery and story-telling. Regional centres are being established with partner institutions to anchor a distributed and equitable network implementing the programme.

Ocean Census builds on major programmes of the past including The Challenger Expeditions (1872-1876, the birth of modern marine science) and The Census of Marine Life (2000-2010).