Intertidal Benthic Surveys

Their surveys range from targeted mapping and sampling of seagrass beds to estuary-wide sampling of invertebrate bird prey.

One of our guiding principles is to cause minimum disturbance to the habitats we work in. These include:

• Mud and sand flats
• Honeycomb worm reefs (Sabellaria alveolata)
• Seagrass beds (Zostera spp.)
• Mussel beds
• Rocky reefs (including chalk platforms)
• Saltmarshes
• Sand dunes

We are one of a few marine environmental consultancies in the UK operating our own intertidal survey hovercrafts.

These allow us to cover large distances across intertidal flats at low tide and navigate very shallow waters to access areas impossible to reach on foot or by boat.

We also use the hovercraft as platforms to operate our Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or ‘drones’. They allow us to rapidly collect high-resolution aerial imagery of intertidal habitats found on the extreme lower shore only exposed during low tide for limited periods.

Our key survey capabilities include:

• Phase I walkover surveys
• Phase II core and quadrat sampling
• Drone mapping