Researchers at the University of Washington can now identify all rockfish species in the Puget Sound using environmental DNA (eDNA)! In combination with habitat and behavior data, eDNA is an important tool for surveying rare or hard to observe species. eDNA samples are collected in the field and then sections of the strands are amplified in the lab for metabarcoding analysis. These sequences of DNA are located within the strand by primers specific to the target region. The UW team designed new primers to capture a longer fragment of DNA containing the markers capable of identifying 85% of all rockfish species. Previous metabarcoding for rockfish, have not been able to differentiate between the 28 species inhabiting the Puget Sound. However, with the new primer, UW scientists can successfully distinguish between all 28. Using the optimized eDNA metabarcoding, the researchers detected 7 species (including the rare yelloweye rockfish) in the Admiralty Inlet and Hood Canal sub-basins.