By harnessing the “universal” properties of select isotopic and elemental markers we could increase our capacity to trace the provenance of marine animals. Much of the underpinning theory has already been developed in the fields of geochemistry and paleoclimatology. Here, we value-add to this knowledge and develop the concept of universal chemical markers to trace marine animals for ecological and food forensic applications. To illustrate this concept, we focus on oxygen isotopes and the universal latitudinal patterns observed in this chemical marker across key marine taxa. We then discuss how this concept could be applied to help tackle the global environmental challenge of seafood fraud. In doing so, we constructed predictive global ocean oxygen isoscapes relevant to fish, cephalopods, and shellfish, alongside a fourth combined “universal” isoscape. We then built machine learning models to classify marine animals back to region of origin across regions with divergent and similar latitudes (temperate and tropical eastern Asia versus temperate Australia). The methods presented here are a first step towards investigating a more inclusive, accessible, and unified approach to tracing the provenance and movement of marine animals and animal products on a global scale.