1219S Survey Benthic Infaunal and PS Sample Analysis

Tender description

Project Background JNCC and Marine Scotland Science (MSS) will undertake an offshore seabed survey to the West Shetland Shelf MPA (WSS hereafter) onboard the Marine Research Vessel (MRV) Scotia (survey code 1219S). The 1219S survey will depart from Aberdeen on 26 August 2019 and returned to Aberdeen on 11 September 2019. WSS lies in offshore waters to the north of Scotland. For more information regarding WSS please see http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-6491. Sampling at WSS will be focussed on the designated Offshore Subtidal Sands and Gravels feature. Samples will be collected from nested boxes within the WSS site boundary, from water depths of 70 to 150 m (Figure 1). Sampling will be conducted using a 0.1 m2 Hamon Grab. 300 ml Particle Size (PS) sediment sub-samples will be extracted from each sample and frozen with the remaining sample sieved using a 1 mm mesh diameter sieve. All material retained after sieving will be transferred to an appropriately sized plastic sample container and preserved in 5% formaldehyde solution buffered with borax. For more information regarding the survey design and methodology, please contact JNCC. Please note the following documents will be supplied to the successful contractor: • Survey programme • Associated metadata • Draft Cruise Report • MEDIN compliant MS Excel proforma spreadsheets