Surveys of deepwater benthic communities using a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) in Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia (WAMSI Node 3 Project 1 Subproject 3.1.1)

The ROV was used in four different locations and communities of the marine park to gather more detailed video data of different benthic communities. Two locations were in the northern section of the park, North West Cape and Point Murat and two in the southern part, Red Bluff and Warroora. Four 50m ROV video transects originating from a centre weight at four different bearings (90, 180, 270, 360 degrees) were conducted at each location. Each transect was analysed using AVTAS software to investigate in more detail the diversity and composition of different communities in the marine park. The ROV was used in four different locations and communities of the marine park to gather more detailed video data of different benthic communities, previously identified from towed video. Due to its stability and manoeuvrability the ROV was also used to gather 'in situ' video footage of individual sponges, soft corals, gorgonians and other benthic species making up each community. The data will assist the WA Museum with the taxonomy of different species. The AIMS LBV Seabotix Remote Operated Vehicle is a small observation class ROV. It is portable and has capabilities of capturing high quality video footage down to 300m. The ROV has dual video camera operation and is remotely operated from a console.