The enclosure of the commons is arguably one of the core dynamics of neoliberal capitalism, fuelling ever-new forms of what David Harvey has called «accumulation-bydispossession» (2003: 1-12) 1 . As an increasingly rich research literature has shown, the commons can be enclosed and privatized through a variety of processes: from landgrabs to the issuing of monopoly rights over forest harvesting (Ince 2014), the creation of mining enclosures (Perreault 2013), and the imposition of monopolies on the products of the collective imagination through patents and copyrights (Prudham 2007). The present article focuses specifically on processes of extraction, abstraction and enclosure of genetic materials. If we consider the history of genomics from the early 1990s until today, we are confronted with a process by which a number of corporations have proceeded to claim exclusive ownership over isolated 'genetic sequences' that often have no immediate 'use-value', but that possess a 'speculative exchange value' -'a speculative exchange value' that derives from the promise that future biotechnological discoveries may render them useful. The article focuses on a particular subset of these processes of 'primitive accumulation by patenting' looking at how marine bioprospecting contributes to capital accumulation by enclosing and privatizing the 'ocean genome'. It charts the ongoing transformation of genomic science into an industry and considers the new types of oceanic exploration that this genomic research both presupposes and fosters. Ocean biodiversity has become a promising source of genetic materials, which are increasingly targeted by purposefully fitted research vessels from around the world.
