Beachy Head East rMCZ Post-survey Site Report Contract Reference: MB0120 Report Number: 2 Version 12 September 2014 Project Title: Coordination of the Defra MCZ data collection programme 2011/12 Report No. 2. Title: Beachy Head East 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 Mrs Anna Downie Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) [email protected] Mr Matthew Curtis Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) [email protected] Dr Markus Diesing Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) [email protected] Mr David Stephens Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) [email protected] Acknowledgements We thank Dr Roger Coggan (Cefas) for reviewing earlier drafts of this report and suggesting further text. 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. Cefas Document Control Title: Beachy Head East rMCZ Submitted to: rMCZ Project Steering Group Date submitted: August 2014 Project Manager: David Limpenny Report compiled by: Anna Downie, Matthew Curtis, Markus Diesing and David Stephens Quality control by: Roger Coggan Approved by & date: Keith Weston (02/09/2014) Version: V12 Version Control History Author Date Comment Version Anna Downie et al. 26/07/2012 First Draft V1 Anna Downie et al. 07/08/2012 Edited draft following additional data V2 Anna Downie et al. 10/08/2012 Edited draft following co-author review V3 Anna Downie et al. 11/08/2012 Edited draft following internal QA V4 Anna Downie et al. 28/09/2012 Edited draft to include partner logos and version V5 control document Anna Downie .. 14/11/2012 Edited following Project Steering Group review V6 Anna Downie et al. 10/01/2013 Final edits ready for sign-off V7 Anna Downie et al. 12/02/2013 Edits following review in relation to Beachy Head V8 East survey report Anna Downie et al. 28/02/2013 Edited following additional PSG comments and V9 external peer review Anna Downie et al. 22/03/2013 Final QA at Cefas V10 Anna Downie et al. 09/09/2013 Edited following amendment to PSA results V11 Anna Downie et al. 02/09/2014 Report edited for format consistency V12 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 ...... 2 1.2 Features present but not proposed in the SAD for inclusion within the rMCZ designation .................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Evidence of human activities impacting the seabed ...................................... 3 2 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 4 2.1 Location of the rMCZ ..................................................................................... 5 2.2 Rationale for site position and designation .................................................... 5 2.3 Rationale for prioritising this rMCZ for additional evidence collection ............ 7 2.4 Survey aims and objectives ........................................................................... 7 3 Methods ............................................................................................................. 8 3.1 Acoustic data acquisition ............................................................................... 8 3.2 Ground truth sample acquisition .................................................................... 8 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 (SAD) habitat map .......................................... 13 4.2 Updated habitat map based on new survey data ......................................... 14 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) ....................................... 17 4.8 Data limitations and adequacy of the updated habitat map ......................... 18 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 .......................................................... 21 5.3 Presence and distribution of species FOCI.................................................. 21 5.4 Evidence of human activities impacting the seabed .................................... 21 References ............................................................................................................... 22 Data sources ............................................................................................................ 24 Beachy Head East 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 ............................................................................... 31 Appendix 2. Outputs from acoustic surveys .......................................................... 34 Appendix 3. Evidence of human activities within the rMCZ .................................. 36 Appendix 4. Species list ........................................................................................ 37 Appendix 5. Analyses of sediment samples: classification and composition ........ 43 Appendix 6. BSH/EUNIS Level 3 descriptions derived from video and stills ......... 44 Appendix 7. Example images for broadscale habitats from survey ....................... 46 Appendix 8. Example images for habitat FOCI from survey ................................. 47 Beachy Head East rMCZ Post-survey Site Report ii List of Tables Table 1. Broadscale habitats for which this rMCZ was proposed for designation. ..... 6 Table 2. Habitat FOCI for which this rMCZ was proposed for designation. ................ 6 Table 3. Species FOCI for which this rMCZ was proposed for designation. ............... 6 Table 4. Broadscale habitats identified in this rMCZ. ............................................... 16 Table 5. Habitat FOCI identified in this rMCZ. .......................................................... 17 Table 6. Details of human activities found in the bathymetry data. .......................... 19 Beachy Head East rMCZ Post-survey Site Report iii List of Figures Figure 1. Location of the Beachy Head East rMCZ, in the context of other rMCZs in the area. Bathymetry is from Defra’s Digital Elevation Model (Astrium, 2011). .. 5 Figure 2. Extent of the area surveyed at the Beachy Head East rMCZ with ground truth sample locations. Bathymetry is from Defra’s Digital Elevation Model (Astrium, 2011). ................................................................................................. 8 Figure 3. Flow chart outlining the process of producing the broadscale habitat map. ......................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 4. EUNIS Level 3 map from the Site Assessment Document. The extent of the current survey is indicated by the yellow line. .................................................. 13 Figure 5. EUNIS Level 4 habitat map (REC data) from the Site Assessment Document. Only the habitat types of interest have been shown. Other habitat types have all been labelled as