Marine ALSF Survey to help protect submerged habitats and heritage

Photo: Seabed Regional surveys to develop a better understanding of Britain’s submerged habitats and heritage in areas of possible marine sand and gravel extraction have been announced. The seabed around our coast holds a wealth of marine life and habitats as well as a huge range of historic finds; ancient and modern from shipwrecks to prehistoric landscapes, submerged as sea levels rose after end of the Ice Age and Britain became an island.

Although rarely attracting public attention, dredging of the seabed for sand and gravel is a major contributor to the UK construction industry – particularly in the South East of England, where a third of construction aggregate requirements come from marine sources. The planned surveys will cover two regions where extraction takes place, the Thames Estuary (off the Essex and Suffolk coasts) and the South Coast (off Hampshire and Sussex), both of which have been worked since the 1970s.

In both cases, a wide region which encompasses the current licences and their surrounding areas will be surveyed to characterise the seabed habitat and heritage so that the effects of future dredging can be placed into a much wider environmental context.

Up to 5000 kilometres of acoustic survey data will be acquired in each region, as well as seabed samples, video and photographs. The survey programme will involve environmental and heritage experts, and is due to start in the summer.

The work is funded by the Government’s Marine Environment Protection Fund, administered by Cefas on behalf of Defra under the wider Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund. It is directed by a Steering Group drawn from industry, regulators and scientific advisors. Paul Leonard of Defra, a Steering Group member said ‘The marine environment is complex, and it is important that we use its resources carefully. While marine aggregate resources are important, it is essential that the decisions relating to this activity are able to draw upon good quality marine environmental information to ensure that sensitive features can be protected and potential impacts minimised. The regional surveys will make a valuable contribution to the way in which we manage marine aggregate interests in the future, as well as providing a useful resource for wider marine management.’

Mark Russell of the British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA), a Steering group member added ‘These surveys have been designed to deliver a high quality suite of marine data which will be of interest to a range of end users. This has required a truly multidisciplinary approach involving Government departments, Government agencies and industry. High quality marine environmental information supports robust, consistent and transparent planning and decision making, and we are pleased to be involved with the commissioning of these surveys.’

The aim of the Regional Environmental Characterisation (REC) surveys is:

To acquire data, of the highest quality and detail possible; to enable broadscale

characterisation of the seabed habitats, their biological communities and potential historic environment assets within the regions.

The Objectives of the Regional Surveys are to:

Collect high quality data within the time and budget of the project.
Collect survey data to describing broad seabed habitats and potential historic environment assets within the regions.
To understand of the physical processes that affects the regional seabed, historic environment and its animal life.
Collect seabed video and photography to describe the types of seabed habitats that are within the areas and help the future study of geophysical data.
Collect seabed grab samples to describe the seabed, and animal communities.
Collect scientific beam trawl samples to describe the animals that live on the surface of the seabed.
Collect data find the location and significance of rare or regionally unique habitats or those that might be considered for protection under national conservation legislation.
And provide a resource that will improve the management of marine offshore activities now and into the future and which may be used to resolve conflicts regarding seafloor use.

Project Team

The surveys are expected to take place during the summer of 2007. Gardline Marine Surveys Limited are undertaking the environmental survey off the South Coast and Lankelma Gardline will be doing the survey in the Thames Estuary. The Project Co-ordinators are Wessex Archaeology.

Links

http://www.alsf-mepf.org.uk/

http://www.bmapa.org/

For further information contact:

SouthCoastMEPF@cefas.co.uk

ThamesMEPF@cefas.co.uk