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A workshop with the aim to compare classical and molecular techniques for phytoplankton enumeration took place at Kristineberg Marine Research Station, Sweden, in August 2005. Seventeen different techniques – nine classical microscopic-based and eight molecular methods – were compared. Alexandrium fundyense was the target organism in four experiments. Experiment 1 was designed to determine the range of cell densities over which the methods were applicable. Experiment 2 tested the species specificity of the methods by adding Alexandrium ostenfeldii, to samples containing A. fundyense. Experiments 3 and 4 tested the ability of the methods to detect the target organism within a natural phytoplankton community. Most of the methods could detect cells at the lowest concentration tested, 100cellsL⁻¹, but the variance was high for methods using small volumes, such as counting chambers and slides. In …