Habitat assessments and monitoring

It’s can be hard to appreciate the significance of sea floor habitats and communities that are hidden beneath the waves, or located in areas that are infrequently visited. Yet the sea floor is an engine room for coastal biodiversity and ecological productivity. Unless we know what’s living on the seafloor, we can’t protect special areas or features, and cannot determine and track the effects of our activities. Coast and Catchment regularly assess, map, and monitor marine habitats.

Habitat assessments and monitoring are a key part of our work. Depending on the job, this may involve methods such as aerial photography, dive or intertidal surveys, towed underwater video, drop cameras, and core and grab sampling. For example, we recently carried out extensive habitat surveys in relation to several consent applications for discharging treated wastewater through ocean outfalls. Those, large scale, assessments involved all of the methods outlined above.