Since our inception in 2014 we have analysed a large volume of seabed imagery on behalf of Cefas and its partners as part of the UK Marine Protected Area (MPA) programme. This ongoing work requires detailed analysis of seabed imagery in order to identify subtidal species across all phyla, assigning of EUNIS/MNCR biotope classifications and input of imagery, infaunal and PSA data onto the Marine Recorder Database.

More recently, we were selected for inclusion on Cefas’ infaunal analysis framework recognising the high-quality standards of our NMBAQC participating macrobenthic laboratory. To date this has involved analysis of sediment samples from Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ) and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) located in the north-eastern Irish Sea, central North Sea and off the south-west of England.