Investigating DNA metabarcoding as a powerful new tool to assess the biodiversity of zooplankton, particularly in Marine Protected Areas. DNA metabarcoding is a molecular method that uses universal genetic markers to obtain information on the various sequences of DNA from all organisms in a sample, such as in the mix of plankton obtained from towing fine-mesh nets. The DNA is matched to reference (known) sequences stored on online databases, such as GenBank and the Barcode of Life.