Ocean environmental monitoring is the basis of environment conservation as well as industries such as fishery and resource development. In recent years, environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis has become an effective tool to detects organism distribution in the sea. By integrating biological and informatics analysis with oceanographic analyses, comprehensive understanding of environmental change including marine pollution and organism dynamics became possible.
   To establish ocean monitoring system using bioinformatics, and to develop research community and human resources, Ushimado Marine Institute of Okayama University is working on the construction of monitoring network in cooperation with national marine stations around Japan.
   So far, preliminary experiments have been conducted in the Seto Inland Sea to establish experimental systems for eDNA analysis. In addition, to promote education and human resources exchange, we are carrying out an interdisciplinary hands-on training course “Rinkai Hackathon” (2017 Genome sequencing by third-generation sequencer; 2018 Environmental DNA analysis; 2019 (TAB) Image recognition by AI).