Indian Ocean - Ocean Biodiversity Information System

Indian Ocean

Statistics

Occurrence records	7,545,808
Species level	3,824,592
Species	26,513
Taxa	38,442
Datasets	746
Time range	1748 - 2025

Data quality

Dropped records

Dropped records	0
Not marine	5,759
No WoRMS match	363,957
No coordinates	0
Zero coordinates	0

Taxonomic issues

Marine unsure	40,261
No accepted name available	308,164

Missing and invalid fields

Field	Missing	Invalid
basisOfRecord	3	0
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters	3,110,352	51,126
eventDate	447,204	0
maximumDepthInMeters	2,808,562	798
minimumDepthInMeters	2,763,170	330
occurrenceStatus	1,789,428	0
scientificName	7,561	0
scientificNameID	619,132	10,654

Spatial issues

Records on land	341,431
More than 20 km from shore	35
Depth exceeds bathymetric depth	44,268

Top datasets

Dataset	Records
Marine Microbes from the Rottnest Island National Reference Station (NRS), Western Australia, Australia (2015-2020) Published 2022-08-02	1,501,242
Foreign vessel commercial trawl records from the North West Shelf, Australia (1979-1985) Published 2023-10-27	821,740
Marine and Coastal Management - Linefish Dataset (AfrOBIS) Published 2020-12-02	727,922
The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking (Standardised) Data from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Published 2024-10-23	641,730
World Ocean Database 2009 Published 2020-11-17	481,810
IMOS - Animal Tracking Facility - Acoustic Tracking - Quality Controlled Detections (2007 -2021) Published 2022-06-08	336,237
Southern Ocean Continuous Zooplankton Recorder (SO-CPR) Survey Published 2024-08-02	312,690
CSIRO, North West Shelf Demersal Marine Resources Study 1980-1997 Published 2022-09-13	185,774
Marine Microbes from RV Southern Surveyor voyage SS2012_V04, Australia (2012) Published 2022-06-25	107,395
Ecoscope tuna bycatch observer data Published 2025-03-20	104,567

Distribution

Disclaimer: EEZ boundaries based on Marine Regions (no endorsement).

Records

Composition

detailed (class) simple

Top taxa

Unique species IUCN Red List All taxa Unique species IUCN Red List All taxa Unique species IUCN Red List All taxa

Scientific name	Records
Alphaproteobacteria Phylum Proteobacteria > Class Alphaproteobacteria	402,431
Mirounga leonina (Linnaeus, 1758) Phylum Chordata > Class Mammalia	254,464
Thermoplasmata Phylum Euryarchaeota > Class Thermoplasmata	222,671
Cyanobacteria Stanier ex Cavalier-Smith, 2002 Phylum Cyanobacteria	171,381
Biota incertae sedis	145,585
Nemipteridae Regan, 1913 Phylum Chordata > Class Teleostei	143,111
Aptenodytes patagonicus Miller, 1778 Phylum Chordata > Class Aves	141,110
Caesionidae Bonaparte, 1831 Phylum Chordata > Class Teleostei	137,354
Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758) EN Phylum Chordata	128,701
Arctocephalus gazella (Peters, 1875) Phylum Chordata > Class Mammalia	114,432

Newest species

Scientific name	Records	Since
Amphidinium massartii Biecheler, 1952 Phylum Myzozoa > Class Dinophyceae	117	2023
Marphysa corallina (Kinberg, 1865) Phylum Annelida > Class Polychaeta	45	2023
Yongeichthys criniger (Valenciennes, 1837) Phylum Chordata > Class Teleostei	96	2023
Pseudo-nitzschia cuspidata (Hasle) Hasle, 1993 Phylum Heterokontophyta > Class Bacillariophyceae	46	2023
Diomedea antipodensis Robertson & Warham, 1992 EN Phylum Chordata > Class Aves	52	2023
Pateobatis hortlei (Last, Manjaji-Matsumoto & Kailola, 2006) NT Phylum Chordata > Class Elasmobranchii	45	2023
Pseudo-nitzschia sabit S.T. Teng, H.C. Lim, P.T. Lim & C.P. Leaw, 2015 Phylum Heterokontophyta > Class Bacillariophyceae	68	2023
Hemiarma marina Shiratori & K.Ishida, 2016 Phylum Cryptophyta > Class Cryptophyceae	51	2023
Chloroparvula pacifica Lopes dos Santos, Noël & Eikrem, 2017 Phylum Chlorophyta > Class Chloropicophyceae	102	2023
Chloropicon sieburthii Lopes dos Santos & Eikrem, 2017 Phylum Chlorophyta	74	2023

Data providers

Name	Records
CSIRO National Collections and Marine Infrastructure	4,022,380
University of Newcastle	1,501,242
Australian Antarctic Division	1,104,390
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Information and Data Centre, Hobart	993,690
CSIR / SADCO / AfrOBIS	878,608
Marine and Coastal Management; Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism	836,457
CSIRO Environment	824,859
Marine and Coastal Management Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism	753,897
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania	731,959
British Antarctic Survey	666,332