NERP Marine Biodiversity Hub, Theme 1- Flinders Commonwealth Marine Reserve (CMR) - deepBRUVS

The Flinders Commonwealth Marine Reserve (CMR) survey was a pilot study undertaken in August 2012 as part of the National Marine Biodiversity Hub's National monitoring evaluation and reporting theme. The aim of this theme is to develop a blueprint for the sustained monitoring of the South-east CMR Network. The particular aims of the survey were twofold; 1) to contribute to an inventory of demersal and epibenthic conservation values in the reserve and 2) to test methodologies and deployment strategies in order to inform future survey design efforts. Several gear types were deployed; including multibeam sonar, shallow-water (less than 150m) Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems (BRUVS), deep- water BRUVS (to 600 m), towed video and digital stereo stills. This resource contains the deep-water BRUVS footage captured on the slope (~500m depth) of two sites: the Flinders CMR and the adjacent Cape Barren fisheries closure. At each site 3 stereo deepBRUVS were deployed over a 3-day period, during which they recorded between 11 and 15 1-hour sampling events each.