SeaMap Tasmania towed video transects 2000-2009

The SeaMap Tasmania project undertook mapping of seafloor habitats across the nearshore Tasmanian coastline (0-40 m) - the first state to compile a statewide asssimilated benthic habitat dataset.This initiative comprised of collating aerial photography (from archives), acoustic mapping, and conducting underwater video surveys and field-based visual observations. From this, 1:25,0000 scale habitat maps were created for shallow coastal water to within 1.5 km of the coastline (or 40 m depth, which ever was arrived at first).This record provided access to the raw video and associated annotations from video transects, which were subsequently used as validation (ground-truthing) for habitat mapping.A submersible digital video camera was deployed at selected locations around the Tasmanian coastline. These samples were used to verify the aerial photography and echo sounder substrate classification and obtain more detailed information on biological assemblages. Transects were undertaken from the LWM (Low water mark) to 80 metres in depth or 1.5 kms from shore. Positional information was recorded for each video drop as a series of DGPS coordinates and also as a direct overlay of the DGPS output (position, date and time) onto the video.