Falmouth Field Course 2017

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Video Surveying

Introduction

Video surveying is a cheap and effective way of gathering data within shallow coastal areas with low turbidities. We used a small submarine camera mounted on a plastic tow to record footage in 4 locations allowing us to groundtruth our bathymetry transects.

Methodology

The camera was deployed from the rear deck with the footage was observed in real time in order to minimise disturbances to benthic biota and allow for in situ camera adjustment. Each video drift lasted around 10 minutes.

Figure 5. A highlight compilation of the video footage taken at each of the 4 sites.

Figure 1. A screenshot containing maerl, numerous macroalgae species and a nudibranch (right).

Figure 2. A screenshot showing a high density of the tube worm Sabella pavonina (central). There is numerous dead maerl present, along with Ulva lactua (top right and left).

Figure 4. A screenshot containing a Majidae (centre), filamentous algae and maerl

Figure 3. Screenshot containing numerous species of macroalgae, Licocarcinus depurator (bottom central), and Sabella pavonina (top right).