A few days ago, swimmer Ross Edgley arrived on shore in Iceland after completing his extraordinary challenge, The Great Icelandic Swim! At his arrival, our project manager Davíð Gíslason (matís), who has been involved in the eDNA sampling onboard the boat together with the Marine & Freshwater Research Institute, joined the event and gave a short interview to Visir, one of Iceland’s national newspapers.
Davíð,, explained that the collaboration with Ross connects directly to two major initiatives: the VS project and the BioProtect project which both aim to better understand and protect marine ecosystems around Iceland.
The Collaboration with Ross has been a Unique Opportunity for the Marine Research in Iceland
While completing his swim, Ross also acted as a citizen scientist, collecting seawater samples that will be used to analyze environmental DNA (eDNA). By filtering and amplifying this DNA, researchers can match it against databases of known species to identify the fish and vertebrates as well as invertebrates, cold water corals, and bacteria present in Iceland’s coastal seas.
“This work is vital if we are to meet the target of designating 30% of our marine areas as protected by 2030,” said Davíð,. “We need to know not only which species are here, but also their abundance and diversity.”
The first results are expected within a few months, offering new insights into the coastal ecosystems that support Iceland’s marine life.
You can see the coverage and watch Davíð’s interview (in Icelandic) at the 0:39:33 mark here!
