South of Celtic Deep BSH

The South of Celtic Deep survey was carried out during 12th - 13th February (Part A) and 19th - 20th February 2012(Part B) on the RV CEFAS Endeavour cruise CEND 03/12. The survey team for the duration of the fieldwork included Cefas marine ecologists, marine surveyors, marine habitat mappers and GIS specialists along with MPA specialists from the JNCC. Selection and positioning of groundtruthing stations was informed by acoustic bathymetric and backscatter data collected opportunistically during the survey and the predicted broadscale habitat map from the Site Assessment Document (SAD). Sampling stations within the predicted sedimentary habitats were positioned using a triangular lattice grid overlaid on the habitat map. Stations within the area predicted as subtidal coarse and sand sediments were at a grid spacing of 3.5 km and while stations within the less extensive area predicted as subtidal mixed sediment were at a grid spacing of 2 km.