Traditional monitoring techniques for ecosystem monitoring identifying are currently time consuming and expensive. By applying DNA-based techniques, GEANS aims to reduce time and costs, and make species identification more accurate. Pilot studies take a central role in proving these advantages. Among the pilot studies, one focuses on soft-bottom monitoring of macrobenthos. Samples were taken at the North Sea, analysed through shotgun sequencing and results were compared with traditional monitoring techniques in order to demonstrate the improvement of applying novel techniques. This data is the result of DNA based soft bottom monitoring of macrobenthos in the framework of shotgun sequencing as an alternative to amplicon sequencing analysed by Nord University in 2021.