Species data for Scottish waters held and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage, derived from benthic surveys 1993 to 2018

The dataset comprises: species records from benthic surveys commissioned by SNH or partners where the outputs are under the custodianship of SNH. Additionally species records determined from SNH analysis of third party commissioned benthic survey video footage are included. The dataset contains surveys which contributed to the Marine Nature Conservation Review (MNCR) programme, EU funded BioMar Life project, SNH Site Condition Monitoring including broad scale surveys in support of the Natura process, surveys to establish the impact of specific activities on marine habitats and species and surveys to support the Scottish Marine Protected Areas project. Records in this dataset were originally collected for a variety of purposes including: identification of areas of marine natural heritage importance, to support protected site designation or to support site condition monitoring. This dataset is a collation of species records from these surveys and has been produced to mobilise these records to a broad spectrum of users and in so doing it contributes to Scottish Natural Heritage’s ongoing commitment to the National Biodiversity Network.