It is a very interesting question - the technology is real and the research on eDNA published in a journal in 2017.
eDNA stands for enviornmental DMA sampling. It allows scientist to test water samples for the presence of the DNA of the invasive fish species. It is more effective than traditional methods of sampling because it does not require trapping or sighting of the invasive species. Water samples can be collected anywhere any time and the DNA results are as accurate and detailed as collected from the invasive species themselves. It provides a complete picture of what invasive species are there.
The study pushes back the clock on the origin of Earth's water by hundreds of millions of years, to around 4.6 billion years ago, when all the worlds of the inner solar system were still forming. Scientists had suspected that our planet formed dry, with high-energy impacts creating a molten surface on the infant Earth.
Answer: 4.6 billion years.
