There are literally hundreds of thousands of varieties of marine life making their home in the oceans around the world today. This statement comes from a ten year long project, whose results were just recently released, to try and categorize them all.

The Census of Marine Life, an international project which commenced back in 2000 and was finally completed this past Monday, was the work of over 2,000 experts from around the globe, and represented the combined efforts of 670 different organizations.

“We prevailed over early doubts that a Census was possible, as well as daunting extremes of nature,” the chair of the Census Steering Committee, Dr. Ian Poiner, commented in a recent statement. “This cooperative international 21st century voyage has systematically defined for the first time both the known and the vast unknown, unexplored ocean.”

The group of international scientists have completed over 500 different trips and have spent an astounding 9,000 days on the sea to complete what is the world’s first, easy to understand catalog of the varying life forms which live in the sea.

The Associated Press reports that they have successfully taken note and made a tally of a total of 201,206 different marine lifeforms, but the group of international scientists has explained that despite the $650 million dollar project has been completed, there are certainly many more species yet to be accounted for.

“All surface life depends on life inside and beneath the oceans. Sea life provides half of our oxygen and a lot of our food and regulates climate. We are all citizens of the sea. And while much remains unknown, including at least 750,000 undiscovered species and their roles, we are better acquainted now with our fellow travelers and their vast habitat on this globe,” explained Poiner.