North West Jones Bank Rmcz Site Report V6
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North-West of Jones Bank rMCZ Post-survey Site Report Contract Reference: MB0120 Report Number: 19 Version 6 August 2015 Project Title: Marine Protected Areas Data and Evidnece Co-ordination Programme Report No: 19. Title: North-West of Jones Bank 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 Dr Alice Jones NERC Marine Geosciences Group, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton [email protected] Dr Tim Le Bas NERC Marine Geosciences Group, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton [email protected] Dr Russell Wynn NERC Marine Geosciences Group, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton [email protected] Acknowledgements We thank Andrew Colenutt (CCO) for reviewing earlier drafts of this report and Gareth Grewcock (CCO) for advice regarding GIS mapping. 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 has 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-West of Jones Bank rMCZ Post-survey Site Report Submitted to: rMCZ Project Steering Group Date submitted: February 2015 Project Manager: David Limpenny Report compiled by: Dr Alice Jones, Dr Tim Le Bas and Dr Russell Wynn (NOCS) Quality control by: Keith Weston Approved by & date: Christopher Barrio (14/08/2015) Version: 6 Version Control History Author Date Comment Version Dr Alice Jones 17th July 2013 First draft 1 Dr Tim Le Bas & 19th July 2013 Amended draft 2 Dr Russell Wynn Dr Alice Jones 7th August 2013 Revised draft following Cefas QC 3 Dr Alice Jones 23rd January 2014 Revised draft following Cefas QC 4 Dr Sue Ware 3rd February 2015 Revised draft following MPAG review 5 Dr Chris Barrio 14th August 2015 Final revisions addressed 6 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 ................................................................... 8 3.3 Production of the updated habitat map ....................................................... 10 3.4 Quality of the updated map ......................................................................... 11 4 Results ........................................................................................................ 12 4.1 Site Assessment Document (SAD) habitat map .......................................... 12 4.2 Updated habitat map based on new survey data ........................................ 12 4.3 Quality of the updated habitat map ............................................................. 15 4.4 Broadscale habitats identified ..................................................................... 15 4.5 Habitat FOCI identified ................................................................................ 16 4.6 Species FOCI identified .............................................................................. 18 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 .......................................... 20 5 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 21 5.1 Presence and extent of broadscale habitats ............................................... 21 5.2 Presence and extent of habitat FOCI .......................................................... 21 5.3 Presence and distribution of species FOCI ................................................. 22 5.4 Evidence of human activities impacting the seabed .................................... 22 References ............................................................................................................... 23 Data sources ............................................................................................................ 25 North-West of Jones Bank rMCZ Post-survey Site Report i Annexes ................................................................................................................... 26 Annex 1. Broadscale habitat features listed in the ENG. ..................................... 26 Annex 2. Habitat FOCI listed in the ENG. ............................................................ 27 Annex 3. Low or limited mobility species FOCI listed in the ENG. ....................... 28 Annex 4. Highly mobile species FOCI listed in the ENG. ..................................... 29 Annex 5. Video and stills processing protocol. .................................................... 30 Appendices .............................................................................................................. 32 Appendix 1. Survey metadata (Gardline cruise (Job #9060) and CEND10/12)) ... 32 Appendix 2. Outputs from acoustic surveys .......................................................... 37 Appendix 3. Evidence of human activities within the rMCZ .................................. 41 Appendix 4. Species list ........................................................................................ 42 Appendix 5. Analyses of sediment samples: classification and composition ........ 48 Appendix 6. BSH/EUNIS Level 3 descriptions derived from video and stills ......... 50 Appendix 7. Example images from survey of broadscale habitats ....................... 52 Appendix 8. Example images from survey of habitat FOCI .................................. 53 North-West of Jones Bank 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 from bathymetry data. ..................... 11 Table 5. Broadscale habitats identified in this rMCZ. .............................................. 16 Table 6. Habitat FOCI identified in this rMCZ. ......................................................... 18 Table 7. Species FOCI identified in this rMCZ. ....................................................... 18 North-West of Jones Bank rMCZ Post-survey Site Report iii List of Figures Figure 1. Location of the North-West of Jones Bank rMCZ. Bathymetry is from the GEBCO Digital Atlas (published by the British Oceanographic Data Centre on behalf of IOC and IHO, 2003). ........................................................................... 4 Figure 2. Location of ground truth sampling sites in the North-West of Jones Bank rMCZ. Bathymetry is from the GEBCO Digital Atlas (published by the British Oceanographic Data Centre on behalf of IOC and IHO, 2003). ......................... 8 Figure 3. Habitat map from the Site Assessment Document (SAD). The hashed ‘No data area’ refers to the parts of the site where no new data were collected during the 2012 surveys. .................................................................................. 12 Figure 4. Updated map of broadscale habitats based on newly acquired survey data (grey shading indicates areas where underlying MBES data are absent). ....... 14 Figure 5. Overall MESH confidence score for the updated habitat map. ................. 15 Figure 6. Habitat FOCI identified in the updated habitat map. ................................. 17 North-West of Jones Bank rMCZ Post-survey Site Report iv 1 Executive Summary: Report Card This report details the findings of a dedicated seabed survey at the North-West of Jones Bank