Our marine team have been out around the coast of the UK doing various surveys for a number of clients.
This has included an intertidal survey on the South Coast, where our client was undertaking works to prevent contamination of the foreshore and constructing a temporary platform in the intertidal area. The site was near to an SPA (Special Protection Area) and, within a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), so a requirement for consent for the works was that an intertidal benthic macroinvertebrate survey be carried out.
We liaised with Natural England to ensure that our proposed methodology was appropriate. As this was a small site, we proposed a single day survey at low tide taking in five stations within the footprint of the proposed platform and two reference stations.
Once the risk assessments and method statements had been completed, our survey team headed out to collect the samples. On return to the laboratory, we extracted all species from the samples and identified them. No species of conservation importance were found and the communities inhabiting the mudflats were typical for the area. As the platform being constructed is only temporary, it is unlikely that there will be any long term changes to the habitat.
A week later and our survey team were out again, but this time on a subtidal survey. This survey was a pre-dredge disposal survey at a new dumping ground approximately 10 miles offshore from the east coast of England. We had carried out the baseline survey already, and later this year will head out again to gather post-dumping data. We have carried out the faunal analysis and are completing particle size analysis before reporting to our client.
We are looking forward to more intertidal and subtidal surveys over the summer months. To read about some of the projects that we have worked on, clickhere.
