North of Celtic Deep Rmcz Post-Survey Site Report V3
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North of Celtic Deep rMCZ Post-survey Site Report Contract Reference: MB0120 Report Number: 49 Version 3 September 2017 Project Title: Marine Protected Areas Data and Evidence Co-ordination Programme Report No 49. Title: North of Celtic Deep rMCZ Post-survey Site Report Defra Project Code: MB0120 Defra Contract Manager: Carole Kelly Funded by: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Marine Science and Evidence Unit Marine Directorate Nobel House 17 Smith Square London SW1P 3JR Authorship Louise Brown Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) [email protected] Paul McIlwaine Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) [email protected] Acknowledgements We thank Julia Rance and Stefan Bolam (Cefas) for creating earlier drafts of this report and Christopher Barrio Froján (Cefas) for reviewing the report. Disclaimer: The content of this report does not necessarily reflect the views of Defra, nor is Defra liable for the accuracy of information provided, or responsible for any use of the reports content. Although the data provided in this report have been quality assured, the final products - e.g. habitat maps – may be subject to revision following any further data provision or once they have been used in SNCB advice or assessments. Cefas Document Control Title: North of Celtic Deep rMCZ Post-survey Site Report Submitted to: Marine Protected Areas Survey Co-ordination & Evidence Delivery Group Date submitted: September 2017 Project Manager: Sue Ware Report compiled by: Louise Brown and Paul McIlwaine Quality control by: Chris Barrio and Peter Mitchell Approved by & date: Silke Kröger, 28.09.2017 Version: V3 Version Control History Author Date Comment Version L Brown & 13/11/2015 First draft submitted to MPAG for review 1 P McIlwaine L Brown & 03/02/2016 Revised following 1st round external review 2 P McIlwaine P McIlwaine 28/09/2017 Revised following 2nd round of review; PSG 3 comments. Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ i List of Tables .............................................................................................................. iii List of Figures ............................................................................................................. iv 1 Executive Summary: Report Card ................................................................. 1 1.1 Features proposed in the SAD for inclusion within the MCZ designation ...... 1 1.2 Features present but not proposed in the SAD for inclusion within the rMCZ designation .................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Evidence of human activities occurring within the rMCZ ............................... 2 2 Introduction ................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Location of the rMCZ ..................................................................................... 3 2.2 Rationale for site position and designation .................................................... 4 2.3 Rationale for prioritising this rMCZ for additional evidence collection ........... 5 2.4 Survey aims and objectives .......................................................................... 5 3 Methods ........................................................................................................ 7 3.1 Acoustic data acquisition ............................................................................... 7 3.2 Ground truth sample acquisition .................................................................... 7 3.3 Production of the updated habitat map ......................................................... 9 3.4 Quality of the updated map ......................................................................... 11 4 Results ........................................................................................................ 13 4.1 Site Assessment Document habitat map .................................................... 13 4.2 Updated habitat map based on new survey data ........................................ 13 4.3 Quality of the updated habitat map ............................................................. 16 4.4 Broadscale habitats identified ..................................................................... 16 4.5 Habitat FOCI identified ................................................................................ 17 4.6 Species FOCI identified .............................................................................. 17 4.7 Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) ...................................... 18 4.8 Data limitations and adequacy of the updated habitat map ......................... 19 4.9 Observations of human impacts on the seabed .......................................... 19 5 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 20 5.1 Presence and extent of Broadscale habitats ............................................... 20 5.2 Presence and extent of habitat FOCI .......................................................... 20 5.3 Presence and distribution of species FOCI ................................................. 21 5.4 Evidence of human activities impacting the seabed .................................... 21 References ............................................................................................................... 22 Data sources ............................................................................................................ 24 North of Celtic Deep rMCZ Post-survey Site Report i Annexes ................................................................................................................... 25 Annex 1. Broadscale habitat features listed in the ENG. ..................................... 25 Annex 2. Habitat FOCI listed in the ENG. ............................................................ 26 Annex 3. Low or limited mobility species FOCI listed in the ENG. ....................... 27 Annex 4. Highly mobile species FOCI listed in the ENG. ..................................... 28 Annex 5. Video and stills processing protocol. .................................................... 29 Appendices .............................................................................................................. 31 Appendix 1. Survey metadata (CEND0312) ........................................................ 31 Appendix 2. Outputs from acoustic surveys ......................................................... 33 Appendix 3. Evidence of human activities within the rMCZ ................................. 35 Appendix 4. Species list ....................................................................................... 36 Appendix 5. Analyses of sediment samples: classification and composition ...... 47 Appendix 6. BSH/EUNIS Level 3 descriptions derived from video and stills ........ 49 Appendix 7. Example images for Broadscale habitats ......................................... 50 Appendix 8. Example images for habitat FOCI .................................................... 51 North of Celtic Deep rMCZ Post-survey Site Report ii List of Tables Table 1. Broadscale habitats for which this rMCZ was proposed for designation. .... 4 Table 2. Habitat FOCI for which this rMCZ was proposed for designation. ............... 5 Table 3. Species FOCI for which this rMCZ was proposed for designation. .............. 5 Table 4. Description of derivatives calculated for bathymetry. ................................ 10 Table 5. Broadscale habitats identified in this rMCZ. .............................................. 17 Table 6. Habitat FOCI identified in this rMCZ. ......................................................... 17 Table 7. Species FOCI identified in this rMCZ. ....................................................... 18 North of Celtic Deep rMCZ Post-survey Site Report iii List of Figures Figure 1. Location of the North of Celtic Deep rMCZ. Bathymetry is from the Defra Digital Elevation Model (Astrium, 2011). ............................................................ 4 Figure 2. Location of groundtruthing sampling sites in the North of Celtic Deep rMCZ. Bathymetry displayed is from Defra’s Digital Elevation Model (Astrium, 2011).................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 3. Extent of aoucstic data blocks across the North of Celtic Deep rMCZ from the 2012 and 2013 suveys. .............................................................................. 10 Figure 4. Habitat map from the Site Assessment Document. .................................. 13 Figure 5. CI tree output for the 2012 block of data classification process. .............. 14 Figure 6. Updated map of Broadscale habitats based on newly acquired survey data. ................................................................................................................. 15 Figure 7. Overall MESH confidence score for the updated broadscale habitat map. ......................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 9. Location of the species FOCI ‘Ocean Quahog (Arctica islandica)’ identified at this rMCZ. .................................................................................................... 18 North of Celtic Deep rMCZ Post-survey