2015 Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Southern Trench (outer Moray Firth) benthic camera and infaunal grab survey

This benthic habitat survey was carried out by Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) for SNH within the Southern Trench MPA proposal from the vessel RV Endeavour from 5th-7th December 2015. The main aim of this survey was to improve understanding of the distribution of benthic habitats within the proposed site, contributing to a programme of refining the distribution of protected features within the pMPA. Fourteen dropdown video stations were surveyed and at a selection of these stations seven grab samples were collected. Further aims of the investigation were to improve knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of species and habitats of recognised conservation importance and opportunistic/contingency sampling. Seastar Survey Ltd. was contracted by SNH to undertake the infaunal analysis of the grab samples, including identifying all the faunal components within the grab samples, sediment particle size analysis (PSA), and assigning a biotope to each sample. Dr Colin Moore was contracted by SNH to undertake video analysis and assign biotopes to each sample based on the physical and biological attributes.